
Pass "jtJ.£ -i-pj 
Book Ell 



DESCENT OF THE DANUBE, 



FROM 



RATISBON TO VIENNA, 



DURING THE 



AUTUMN OF 1827. 



ANECDOTES AND RECOLLECTIONS, 

HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY, 



TOWNS, CASTLES, MONASTERIES, &c, UPON 
THE BANKS OF THE RIVER, 

AND THEIR INHABITANTS AND PROPRIETORS, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



By J. R. PLANCHE, 

AUTHOR OF (< LAYS AND LEGENDS OF THE RHINE," "^OBERON," AN OPERA, §C. 



Ye glorious Gothic scenes ! how much'ye strike 

All phantasies, not even excepting.mine : 
A grey wall, a green ruin, rusty pike, 

Make my soul, pass the equinoctial liner 
Between the present and past worlds, and hover 
Upon their airy confine, half-seas»over % — -Don Juan, Canto X» 



V 

LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR JAMES DUNCAN, PATERNQSTER-RQW 



MDCCCXXVIir. 






9* 



LONDON • 

Printed by William Clowes, 

Stamford Street. 



SAMUEL RUSH MEYRICK, 

OF GOODERICH COURT, HEREFORDSHIRE, 
ESauiRE, 

LL.D., F.S.A., &c. &c. 
THIS VOLUME 

IS INSCRIBED 
BY HIS VERY SINCERE AND MUCH OBLIGED FRIEND, 

J. R. PLANCHE. 



Brompton-Crescent, July 1, 1828. 



PREFACE 



It appears rather surprising that, while our 
printshops teem with views on the Rhine, 
and the shelves of our booksellers groan 
with the weight of Tours in its neighbour- 
hood, no English pen or pencil should have 
been hitherto employed in illustration of the 
magnificent Danube. Captain Batty, it is 
true, in his beautiful work entitled " Ger- 
man Scenery," has three or four views 
upon the river, and one or two modern 
tourists have slightly mentioned a town or 
so, which, lying on the post-road to Vienna, 
as well as on the banks of the Danube, they 
have passed through on their way to the 
Austrian capital. But, with the exception 
of the translation of Baron Riesbeck's 
travels in Germany, published in the fifth 



VI PREFACE. 

volume of Pinkerton's collection, which 
contains a very brief but faithful descrip- 
tion of the river from Passau to Vienna, 
I am aware of few works in our lan- 
guage from which the slightest idea of 
its beauty and interest can be drawn, and 
of none absolutely dedicated to its history 
and illustration *. That the Danube should 

* While this volume was passing through the press, " A 
Summer's Ramble amongst the Musicians in Germany" 
appeared, in which pleasant book, a dozen pages are allotted 
to an equally brief and spirited notice of the banks of the 
Danube from Passau to Vienna. Upwards of one hundred 
years ago, Lady M. W. Montague descended the Danube 
from Ratisbon to Vienna, a voyage of which she dismisses 
her account, in a dozen lines. " We travelled by water from 
Ratisbon," says the fair writer, " a journey perfectly agree- 
able down the Danube, in one of those little vessels that they 
very properly call wooden houses, having in them all the con- 
veniences of a palace, stoves in the chambers, kitchens, &c." 
(I do not know what exertions might have been made 
for the accommodation of a British Ambassador, his Lady 
and suite, but the Danube, I suspect, has not seen such 
another boat during the last century.) "They are rowed by 
twelve men each, and move with such incredible swiftness, 
that in the same day you have the pleasure of a vast variety 
of prospects ; and within the space of a few hours, you have 
the pleasure of seeing a populous city, adorned with magnifi- 
cent palaces, and the most romantic solitudes which appear 
distant from the commerce of mankind, the banks of the 



PREFACE. Vll 



be so little known to our rambling country- 
men is the more remarkable, as Vienna — 
voluptuous Vienna ! is one of the points to 
which it leads, and the ease, pleasure, and 
velocity with which its stream may be 
descended, render, in commonly fair wea- 
ther, the passage by water considerably pre- 
ferable to the journey by land, though per- 
formed in the traveller's own post-chariot; 
and as by land he must return, he thus se- 
cures to himself the advantage of entirely 
new scenery, even if compelled by time or 
circumstances to retrace his line of route. 

The road from Frankfort to Ratisbon is 
replete with interest — the beautiful banks 
of the meandering Mein ; the battle-field 
of Dettingen ; the fine chateau and gardens 
of Aschaffenburg ; Wurtzburg with its 
splendid palace, its rich conservatories and 
rock-throned citadel ; Niirnberg, the birth- 
Danube being charmingly diversified with woods, rocks, 
mountains covered with vines, fields of corn, large cities, and 
ruins of ancient castles." — Letter to the Countess of Mar, 
dated Vienna, September 18th, o. s. 1716. 



V1U PREFACE. 



place of Albert Durer, with its fantastic 
buildings, and gorgeous cathedral, all tempt 
the wanderer on to the heights of Hohen- 
Sehambach, where the plain of the Danube 
bursts upon his view. The return from 
Vienna, by Salzburg and Munich, or through 
the Tyrol to the Lake of Constanz, and so 
down the Rhine home, leaves nothing to 
be wished for in point of scenery; while 
six weeks or two months, provided the tra- 
veller be not ensnared by the gaieties of 
Vienna, are amply sufficient, in fair wea- 
ther, for the whole of the journey. 

Having sought in vain, on my departure 
from England, for a book which would 
serve me as a guide and companion down 
the Danube, I was induced to take a few 
notes and sketches during my little voyage, 
in the hope that, when thrown, at my lei- 
sure, into something like a readable shape, 
they might become useful to future travel- 
lers, by at least standing in the gap till 
some abler hand should supply the deside- 



PREFACE. IX 

ratum. In the pursuance of this object, I 
was greatly assisted by a copy of Pro- 
fessor Schultes' Donau-Reise*, the best 
foreign guide down the Danube; but which 
is yet incomplete, and suppressed in Aus- 
tria on account of its political and reli- 
gious opinions. At the same time, how- 
ever, that I acknowledge my obligations to 
this work, from which I have gleaned much 
information on points that could only have 
been explained by a native, or one long re- 
sident in the country, I must take the liberty 
of expressing my objection to its style, 
which renders its perusal a task to Germans 
themselves, and must make it almost a sealed 
book! to a foreigner. Herr Schultes' prolix- 
ity, ^nd love of inversion, are enough to 
drive ^in English reader crazy. The latter, 
indeed! he carries to such an extent, that the 
waggish description of " the-in-general- 

strewed\with-cabbage - stalks-but-on-a-Sa- 

\ 

* Ein haikbuch fur Reisende auf der Donau. Von J. A. 
Schultes, M. W &c. Wien, 1819. Stuttgart, 1627. 



X PREFACE. 

turday-night-lighted-up-with-lamps-market 
of Co vent Garden" must hide its dimi- 
nished head. The learned Professor some- 
times keeps his inquisitive victim on the 
rack for pages, before he deigns to dis- 
close the word which solves the enigma of 
his apparently interminable sentence. He 
seems to glory in this species of mystifica- 
tion, and, like poor dear innocent Dog- 
berry, were he " as tedious as a king/' he 
would " bestow it all upon your worship/' 
Still, however, " there is matter in this 
madness," and the Professor has been a 
diligent digger. The list of German au- 
thors, both ancient and modern, who have 
written upon the antiquities, history, and 
natural productions of the towns and shores 
of the Danube, was invaluable to a stran- 
ger like myself, as it enabled me at once to 
lay my hands upon authorities ' pour veri- 
fier les dates, 5 &c. ' Die Burgvesten und 
Ritterschlosser der Oestreichischen Monar- 
chic, 4 T. Brunn, 1820,' is anotaer work, 



PREFACE. XI 

which has afforded me much curious le- 
gendary material ; as have also the ' Tas- 
chenbuch zur Geschichte verfallener Ritter- 
burgen/ &c, Wien, 1826, and other simi- 
lar publications. 

The Danube, whose waves have wit- 
nessed the march of Attila, of Charlemagne, 
of Gustavus Adolphus, and Napoleon; 
whose shores have echoed the blast of the 
Roman trumpet, the hymn of the Pilgrim 
of the Cross, and the " wild halloo" of the 
sons of Islam, whose name is equally dear 
to history and fable ; to him who, in fancy, 
sees the lion-hearted Richard of England 
languishing for his native land, or follows 
the beautiful widow of Siegfried to the 
" rich King Etzel's court," — that such a 
theme was worthy of being treated by the 
first writers in our language, was an awful 
consideration for one of the humblest ; that 
it had not been touched upon by any was 
the only encouragement. " You have 
often scribbled successfully for the stage," 



Xll PREFACE. 



said my friend , "why should you 

fear to write for the passage-boat ? " The 
joke was a vile one, but the argument was 
conclusive. Gentle reader, this is my first 
appearance in the character of a tourist. I 
have taken the part at a short notice, no 
one else having appeared to sustain it, and 
respectfully solicit the usual indulgence. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I, 



Page 



First View of the Danube and Ratisbon — Description 
of Boats on the Danube — The City of Ratisbon — The 
Cathedral— The Heide Platz— Church of the Scotch 
Benedictines — The Bridges — The Rath-haus — The 
Abbey of St. Emmeram — Story of Frederick von 
Ewesheim — Church of the Dominicans — The Neue- 
Pfarre-Kirche — Ober and Nieder Minister — Karmeli- 
ten Kloster— The Horses' Church — The Promenades 
— Unterhaltungs Haus — Maximilian Joseph Gasse — 
David and Goliath — Embarkation— Worth— Donau- 
stauf— The Dunkel-boden — Sossau 



CHAPTER II. 

Straubing — The Bridge — The Hauptstrasse — The Stadt- 
thurm — The Pfarr, or Collegiat Kirche — Story of 
Agnes Bernauer — The Ramparts — The Atzelburg — 
Ober Altaich — Bogenberg — Kloster Metten — The 
Natternberg — Deggendorf — The Gnade Zeit — Con- 
fluence of the Isar and the Danube — Rafts from 
Munich to Vienna — Nieder Altaich — Hengersberg — 
Osterhofen — Hoch-winzer — Hofkirchen — Kinzing — 
Hildegartsberg — Vilshofen — Collegiat Stift — The 
Sandbach — New Road to Passau — Maximilian Jo- 
seph I., late King of Bavaria — Louis I., the present 
Monarch — Statue of a Lion — Approach to Passau . , 32 



XIV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 



Page 



Passau — The Inn-stadt — The Fair — The Cathedral — 
The Bridge — Fortress of Oberhaus — Celebrated View 
— Mariahilf— The Ilz-stadt — The Sword Cutlery- 
Present Manufactures and Commerce of Passau — 
Talismans — Goitres — Excursions into the Environs 
of Passau — Confluence of the Inn and the Danube — 
Krempenstein — Hafner Zell — Its Manufactories — ■ 
Fichtenstein — The Jochenstein — The Ruin of Ried . 77 

CHAPTER IV. 

Engelhard' s-zell — Rana-riedl — Marsbach — WesenUrfar 
— Waldkirche — Hayenbach — The Schlagen — The 
Rhine and the Danube contrasted — Ober Michl — 
Neuhaus — Aschach — The paper-money of Austria — 
Castle of Schaumberg — Environs of Aschach — Ober 
Walsee — Story of Hans von Eschelberg — Sketch of 
the Insurrections in the Seventeenth Century 96 

CHAPTER V. 

Efferding — Ottensheim — Kloster-Willering — Linz— The 
Platz — The Landstrasse — The Schlossberg — The 
Landhaus — The Theatre— The Bridge— The Pdst- 
lingberg — View on leaving Linz — Steyereck — The 
River Traun — Ebelsberg — Luftenberg — Monastery of 
St. Florian — Tillysburg — Spielberg — Mauthausen — 
Ens — Origin and History of the City — Antiquities 
discovered in its neighbourhood 137 

CHAPTER VI. 

Nieder-Walsee — Castles of Clam and Kreuzen — Ardag- 
ger — Grein— The Strudel and the Wirbel — Mistakes 



CONTENTS. XV 

Page 

of various Authors concerning them — St. Nikola — 
Sarblingstein — Freystein — Hirschau — The Isper — 
Bosenbeug — Story of Bishop Bruno and the Lady 
Richlita— Ips— Gottsdorf 180 

CHAPTER VII. 

Marbach — Maria-Taferl — Pechlarn — Wiedeneck — Molk 
— Lubereck — The Valley of the Wachau — Schonbiihel 
— Aggstein — The TeufePs-Mauer — Spitz, and the 
Ruin of Hinterhaus — Church and Village of St. Michel 
— Castle of Diirrenstein — Narrow escape of Marshal 
Mortier during the Campaign of 1805 — Mautern — 
Stein — Krems — Kloster Gottweih — Trasen-Mauer — 
Arrival at Tuln 217 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Tuln — Langenlebern — Greifenstein — Story of Etelina 
— Korneuberg — The Bisamberg — Kloster Neuburg 
— Leopoldsberg, and the Khalenberg — A glimpse of 
the capital — Nussdorf — Arrival at Vienna — Bird's-eye 
View and Description of the Environs from the 
Temple of Glory in the Briihl . « 267 



Directions for placing the Plates. 

View of Schloss Bosenbeug, to face Title. 
Map to face Chapter I. 




Common passage-boat from Ratisbon to Vienna. 



CHAPTER I. 

First View of the Danube and Ratisbon— Description of 
Boats on the Danube — The City of Ratisbon — The Ca- 
thedral — The Heide Platz — Church of the Scotch Bene- 
dictines — The Bridges — The Rath-haus — The Abbey of St. 
Emmeram — Story of Frederick von Ewesheim — Church of 
the Dominicans — The Neue — Pfarre Kirche — Ober and 
Nieder Minister — Karmeliten Kloster — The Horses' 
Church — The Promenades — Unterhaltungs Haus — Maxi- 
milian Joseph Gasse — David and Goliath — Embarkation 
— Worth — Donaustauf — The Dunkel-boden — Sossau. 



I believe it is Doctor Clarke who advises 
travellers never to see a mountain without 
going to the top of it. I should rather say, 
never see a river without following the 
course of it. One very extensive prospect 
too nearly resembles another, particularly 



BAVARIA, 



in the same country, to give additional gra- 
tification, and I have not unfrequently, like 
the celebrated King of France, " marched 
up a hill, and then marched down again," 
to about as little purpose. But never did 
I follow the course of a stream, however 
insignificant, without being surprised and 
delighted. Without water, the loveliest 
prospect is incomplete. Lakes and rivers 
are the eyes of the earth ; the want of 
them cannot be atoned for by the beauty 
of its other features, however exquisite. 

The formidable account of some friends 
who had made the voyage, backed, as it 
seemed to be, by a twaddling notice in a 
German Guide-Book, had nearly dissuaded 
me from descending the Danube to Vienna. 
But the first glimpse of its magnificent 
flood, rolling through the broad and fertile 
plain, in the centre of which the ancient city 
of Ratisbon rears its sombre cathedral, and 
winding away into the horizon amongst the 
shadowy mountains of the Bohmer-wald, 
renewed my original determination; and 
my first care, on finding myself safely de- 
posited in the excellent hotel, Das Goldene 
Kreutz, on the Heide Platz, was to make 



RAT1SB0N. 6 

the necessary inquiries how, when, and 
where I should embark on the " thunder- 
ing river*/ 5 

The regular passage-boat from Ratisbon 
to Vienna was to start on the following 

* Etymologists have squabbled as much over the name of 
the Danube, as geographers over its source, which some 
contend to be near the village of St. George, and others in 
the court- yard of the palace of the Prince of Fiirstenberg, at 
Donaueschingen. This mighty flood, the grandest in Europe, 
and the third in consequence in the Old World, was known 
to the Romans by the double name of the Danube, and the 
Xster- " Ortus hie in Germanise jugis montes abnobae ex 
adverso Raurici Gallise oppidi multis ultra alpes millibus, ac 
per innumeras lapsus gentes Danubii nomine, immenso 
aquarum auctu et unde primum Illyricum alluit Ister appel- 
latus, sexaginta amnibus receptis, medio ferme numero eorum 
navigabili, in Pontum vastis sex fluminibus evolvitur." — 
' Plin. Nat. Hist/ iv. 24. The ancient Germans named it 
Done and Tona ; the Sclavonians, Donava. The Hungarians 
call it Tanara, or Donara, and the Turks, Duna. Its mo- 
dern German appellation is Donau. Some of the earlier 
writers would derive this name from Deus Abnobius, or 
Diana Abonbia, or Abnopa, to whom a temple was 
dedicated near the source of the river. Others deduce 
it from Thon, clay, and contend it should be written 
Thonau. Others again would find its origin in the words 
Ton, sound, or Donner, thunder ; and Reichard, indeed, 
gives the latter as the received derivation. Breuninger, 
however, proposes Tanne, a fir, and speciously enough, the 
river rising in the Schwarz-wald, of which fir is the distinc- 
tive character, and its banks being clothed with forests of the 
same tree, along nearly the whole of its course ; while Ni- 
kolai would have us seek it in the Keltic words Do, Na, which 
signify two rivers, and may either apply to its double name, 
" Binominem Istrum," or to the two sources which dispute 
the glory of its birth. 

b 2 



BAVARIA. 



morning at eight o'clock, and for the very 
moderate sum of five florins, not quite ten 
shillings English, would have landed me in 
the Austrian capital in about five or six 
days, according to the weather. But as 
neither I nor my companion was willing, 
for a slight pecuniary consideration, to risk 
a serious diminution of the pleasures of 
the voyage by a crowded deck, a filthy 
cabin, bad company, and miserable fare, I 
applied to a Schiffmeister of Stadt-am-hof, 
the little fauxbourg of Ratisbon, on the left 
bank of the Danube, who agreed to furnish 
us with a boat, steersman, and crew for the 
sum of twenty ducats, about ten pounds 
sterling, and to assure our arrival at Vienna 
in four days, or four and a half at farthest. 

The boats on the Danube, though of 
various names and sizes, are nearly all of 
one shape. That which I hired is called, 
in the peculiar patois of the Bavarian boat- 
men, a Weitz-zille, and is the sort of con- 
veyance particularly appropriated to pri- 
vate travelling. It is about forty feet long, 
and composed of rough deal planks, nailed 
rudely together, the ribs being of natural 
branches, and caulked with moss. In the 



RATI SB ON. 



centre is a kind of awning, or rather hut, 
of the same unpretending materials. It is 
flat-bottomed, as are all the craft upon this 
river, and, in short, is little more than a 
large rude punt. Sails are unknown upon 
the Danube ; it is therefore rowed by two 
men, and steered by a third, with long 
clumsy-looking paddles, tied to upright 
posts, upon which every now and then 
water is flung to make them work easy, 
and avoid ignition. The Coche d'eau, or 
common passage-boat, is rather larger, and 
is called a Gamsel, or a Kellhaimer. Those 
used for the conveyance of merchandise, 
are known by the names of Hochnauen, 
Klobzillen, (facetiously termed vessels of 
the line by Professor Schultes,) Nebenbeys, 
Schwernmern, &c, all of the same fashion, 
keelless, sailless, their plain deal sides 
daubed with broad perpendicular stripes of 
black paint, their only ornament. Some 
of the larger are nearly one hundred and 
fifty feet long ; and, in ascending the river, 
are towed, four or five together, by from 
thirty to forty horses. The drivers are 
called Jodelen, and a more singular set of 
beings can scarcely be imagined. In ap- 



BAVARIA, 



pearance they are something between the 
English dustman and drayman, but the 
lowest of either of those worthies might 
pass for a scholar and a gentleman by the 
side of a real Jodel. From the moment 
the Danube becomes navigable, till it is 
again chained up in ice, these fellows never 
enter the humblest hovel, or mix with men 
of other callings, but even sleep upon the 
river's bank beside their horses. A miser- 
able superstition exists amongst them. 
They believe that some of their number 
must every year be sacrificed to the Spirit 
of the Waters, and, consequently, when 
an accident occurs, they all scramble for 
the drowning man's hat, but never think 
of stretching out a finger to save him, 
whom they look upon as a doomed and de- 
manded victim. Professor Schultes declares 
that he once saw five jodelen, with their 
horses, precipitated into the river, when 
their companions hastily cut the ropes, to 
prevent the rest of the team from following, 
and drove on, leaving the poor wretches to 
their fate. 

Before I step into my little bark, how- 
ever, the old city of Ratisbon, or, more 



RATISBON. 7 

properly Regensburg, claims a few mo- 
ments' attention. The Regina Castra of the 
Romans has had twenty different names*, 
and, according to Giinther, owes that of 
Ratisbona, or Ratispona, to its conveni- 
ence as a landing place. 

" Inde Ratisbonae vetus ex hoc nomen habenti 
Quod bona sit ratibus, vel quod consuevit in ilia 
Ponere nauta rates" 

Near it, the little river Regen falls into 
the Danube, from whence its German ap- 
pellation of Regensburg. One of the chief 
towns on the Illyrian frontier, here the 
Roman merchant traded for furs, and the 
eagle of the " Legio tertia Italica" long 
glittered in the sight of the humbled bar- 
barians. From Regensburg the " furious 
Frank" rushed, beneath the banners of 
Charlemagne, to his Pannonian victories. 
Under Arnulph the Bastard, it became a 
flourishing commercial and manufacturing 
town. In 1106, the unfortunate Emperor 
Henry IV. here resigned his crown and 
sceptre to his unnatural son. In 1193, 
Richard Coeur de Lion was sent hither a 

* Vide * Gemeiner's Reichs-stadt Regenburgische Chronik.' 
4to, Regensburg, 1805. 



8 BAVARIA. 

prisoner to the Emperor Henry VI., who 
re-delivered him to his sworn foe and cap- 
tor, Leopold Duke of Austria. Here, on 
the 12th of October, 1576, expired the Em- 
peror Maximilian II., in whose favour Ger- 
many revived the surname of Titus, or the 
Delight of Mankind. No stronger proof 
of his great and amiable qualities can be 
given, than the concurring testimony of 
the historians of Germany, Hungary, Bo- 
hemia, and Austria, both Catholics and 
Protestants, who vie in his praises, and in 
representing him as a model of impartiality, 
wisdom, and benignity *. " It excites a 
melancholy regret," says Wraxall, " to 
reflect that the reign of so excellent a 
sovereign as Maximilian was limited to the 
transitory period of twelve years, while 
Philip II., the scourge of his own subjects 
and of Europe, occupied the throne during 
more than forty. The Romans might, 
with equal reason, have lamented that 
the tyranny of Tiberius lasted above 
twenty years, when the benign adminis- 
tration of Titus scarcely exceeded as many 

* Coxe's ' Hist, of the House of Austria,' 8vo. London, 
1820, Vol. ii. p. ?35. 



RATISBON. 9 

months*/' In 1633, Ratisbon was taken 
by Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and 
retaken by the allied Bavarians and Aus- 
trians, commanded by Ferdinand King of 
Hungary, in the following year. In 1641, 
the Swedes, under the famous General 
Banner, cannonaded it; and on the 21st of 
April, 1809, it was taken by the French, after 
a desperate conflict, being the fourteenth 
time, in the course of nine hundred years, 
that this unfortunate city has been visited 
by the united horrors of war. 

Its grand but gloomy cathedral contains 
some curious sculpture, and some richly 
painted windows, the blues in which are re- 
markable for their brilliancy. The date, 
1482, is upon the upper part of an angular 
porch ; but the fapade of the building, the sin- 
gular well, the richly ornamented canopies 
on columns, in various parts of the interior, 
and the equestrian statues of Saint Martin 
and another, are all of an earlier period.-)- 

* ' History of France/ 8vo. Vol. ii. p. 146. 

t From a wood-cut in the Numbers; Chronicle of 1493, 
it appears, however, that the towers were even at that time 
unfinished ; one being; represented a story shorter than the 
other, and with a crane upon it raising a stone. The 
author, Hartmann Schedel, in the text of the book, de- 
scribes the edifice as " yet incomplete." 



10 BAVARIA. 

In the chancel, near the altar, is deposited 
the heart of the Emperor Maximilian I. ; 
and in a chapel on the south side of the 
chancel, within a glass case, is the recum- 
bent effigy, in wax, of Saint John of Nepo- 
muck, the celebrated confessor of the wife 
of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, who re- 
fusing to divulge the secrets of his royal 
penitent was thrown into prison, tortured, 
and, finally, flung over the bridge at 
Prague and drowned, by the king's order. 
His statue, in the habit of the Jesuits, is to 
be seen on nearly every bridge in the south 
of Germany ; he, who perished by water, 
being curiously enough selected from the 
list of saints as the protector of all who 
travel on that element. On an altar-tomb, 
in the nave, is a splendid bronze effigy of a 
Bishop of Ratisbon and Duke of Bavaria 
kneeling to a crucifix. On the Heide 
Platz, or Place of the Pagan, a terrible 
combat is said to have been fought, be- 
tween a gigantic Hun named Craco, who 
had flung forty knights out of their saddles, 
and Hans Dollinger, a valiant burgher of 
the town, during the reign, and in the pre- 
sence of Henry the Fowler. The emperor 



RATISBON. 11 

crossed the panting champion twice upon 
the mouth, and to the virtue of these holy 
signs the defeat of the Pagan is princi- 
pally attributed*. draco's sword, measur- 
ing nearly eight feet, and his ponderous 
helmet, hung for some time in the choir of 
Nieder Miinster. The sword is now at 
Vienna, whither it was taken in 1542. On 
the side of a house, in the Kohlen-markt, 
is a representation of this combat ; and the 
square itself, I have little doubt, formed 
originally part of the Heide Platz, from 
which it is at present separated by a row 
of comparatively modern erections. The 
church of the Scotch Benedictines, near 
the Jacobs-Thor, has a fine portal, of ap- 
parently the twelfth century. There is a 
tragical story told of its last abbot, Gallus, 
who was compelled to see a beloved brother 
torn to pieces without daring to acknow- 
ledge him ; but I was not able to learn the 
particulars, though, Schultes says, they 
are of general notoriety. The celebrated 

* Vide ' Ausfuhrliche relation desjenigen wunderthatigen 
Kampfes, welcher anno 930, den 23 Januar, zu Regensburg 
zwischen Hannss Dollinger einem Burger daselbstund eiriem 
unglaubigen hunnischen Obristen Craco, vorgegangen/ 4to 
Regensburg, 1710, , 



12 BAVARIA. 

bridge across the Danube is a clumsy-look- 
ing affair, and sadly disappoints the ex- 
pectant traveller : the honour of its erec- 
tion is hotly disputed between Henry the 
Proud and the Devil*! Their im- 
perial and satanic majesties have each 
their zealous partisans, but the proofs are 
in favour of the earthly potentate, who, in 
conjunction with the town of Ratisbon, 
commenced the work A. D. 1135. It was 
finished in 1146. It is of free-stone, sup- 
ported by piles of oak driven to a consider- 
able depth in the bed of the river, consists 
of fifteen arches, and is one thousand and 
ninety-one feet in length. Of the three 
principal bridges of Germany, that of Dres- 
den is said to be the most elegant ; that 
of Prague, the longest ; and that of Ratis- 
bon, the strongest. Besides this stone 
bridge there are two wooden bridges, one 
very small, connecting the stone bridge 
with a long island in the middle of the 
river, and another of larger dimensions, 
which leads from the island to the city 

* The legend tells us, that the Infernal Architect was sadly 
worried, during his labours, by a cock and a dog-. A cock 
and a bull would have figured with more propriety in such a 
story. 



RATISBON. 13 

near the Nieder Munster. In the Kohlen- 
markt stands the Rathhaus, or Hotel de 
Ville, where from 1662 to 1806 the diet 
was held. Justice and Fortune have in- 
herited the building. The Tribunal of 
Police is established in one part of it, and 
the Lottery is drawn in the other. Its 
curious old gate and bay-window are in 
excellent preservation. Their arches and 
crocketted pinnacles are of the thirteenth 
century, and greatly resemble those of the 
monument of our Edward I. at Westminster. 
The two figures above the gate, one bear- 
ing a martel de fer, and the other in the 
act of flinging a stone, are of the close of 
the fifteenth century : beneath each is a 
shield with the arms of the city. The 
Abbey of Saint Emmeram is now the resi- 
dence of the Prince of Thurm and Taxis : 
his gardens are kindly thrown open to the 
public from six in the morning to six in the 
evening. Saint Emmeram was a French- 
man, a native of Poictiers, who, having 
visited the court of Theodo, was suspected 
of an illicit amour with the princess his 
daughter, and murdered by her brother at 
Helfendorf, A. D. 652. In the vaults of this 



14 BAVARIA. 

building lie Childeric, the deposed king of 
France, the Emperor Arnulph, and his son 
Ludwig IV., the celebrated historian John 
Aventine, Saint Wolfgang, and Saint Dio- 
nysius, the Areopagite. The body of the 
latter saint is said to have been purloined 
from the Abbey of Saint Denis, in France, 
in the year 893; and Pope Leo XL, in a 
particular bull, absolutely threatened with 
excommunication all who dared doubt the 
genuineness of the holy corpse*: "not- 
withstanding which," says Keysler, " the 
monks of Saint Denys, near Paris, insist 
that the body of that saint is actually in 
their possession ; and his head is shown in 
the third shrine of their treasury. On the 
other hand, the monks of Saint Emmeram 
maintain, that the only part wanting in 
their relique, is the middle finger of the 
right hand. However, an entire hand of 
this saint is shown at a chapel in Munich. 
His head is also devoutly worshipped in 
the cathedral of Bamberg ; and at Prague 
another head of that saint is kept in the 
Church of Saint Vitus in the Castle -f." 

* ' Des Churbayer Atalantis, von A. W. Ertel/ 8vo. Nurn- 
berg, 1815. 

f * Travels through Germany, &c. 5 4 vols. 4to. London, 



RAT1SBON. 15 

This abbey formerly possessed an altar of 
solid gold, a fine manuscript of the Gospels, 
written in gold, the cover ornamented with 
precious stones, and presented by Charles 
the Bald to the monks of Saint Denis ; 
another copy, said to have been written 
in 75 1 by a bishop, in the ninetieth year 
of his age, and many other valuable curi- 
osities. The MSS. are, I believe, still in 
existence*. Gemeiner, in his chronicle, has 
a story connected with the edifice, suffi- 
ciently illustrative of the period of its 
action to merit insertion; besides which 
I doat upon old stories, and fairly warn that 
" gentle reader," who may not have the 
same predilection, to lay down the book in 
time, as it is only when, like the Knife- 
grinder, " I have none to tell," that he has 
the slightest chance of escape from them. 

A certain worthy Bishop of Regens- 
burg, not contented with fleecing his flock, 
according to the approved and legitimate 
method, made it a point of conscience to 
waylay and plunder his beloved brethren 

1757, vol. iv. p. 212. The saint must surely have been like 
Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus — " Three gentlemen at once." 

* Yet I do not find them noticed by Mr. Dibdin, in his 
curious ' Bibliographical Tour.' 



16 BAVARIA. 

whenever they ventured near the Castle of 
Donaustauf, in which he resided upon the 
banks of the Danube, a little below the 
town. In the month of November 1250, 
says the chronicle, tidings came to Donau- 
stauf, that, on the following morning, the 
daughter of Duke Albert of Saxony would 
pass that way, with a gorgeous and gallant 
escort. The bait was too tempting for the 
prelate. He sallied out upon the glitter- 
ing cortege, and seizing the princess and 
forty of her noblest attendants, led them 
captives to Donaustauf. The astonished 
remainder fled for redress, some to King- 
Conrad, and others to Duke Otho, at Lands- 
hut, who immediately took arms, and car- 
rying fire and sword into the episcopal ter- 
ritories, soon compelled the holy highway- 
man to make restitution and sue for mercy. 
Conrad, satisfied with his submission, for- 
gave him ; in return for which the Bishop 
bribed a vassal, named Conrad Hohenfels, 
to murder his royal namesake ; and, ac- 
cordingly, in the night of the 28th of De- 
cember, the traitor entered the Abbey of 
Saint Emmerams, where the king had taken 
up his abode, and stealing into the royal 
chamber stabbed the sleeper to the heart ; 



RATISBON. 17 

then running to the gates of the city, threw 
them open to the bishop and his retainers, 
exclaiming that the king was dead. The 
traitors were, however, disappointed. Fre- 
derich von Ewesheim, a devoted servant 
of the king, suspecting some evil, had per- 
suaded the monarch to exchange clothes 
and chambers with him, and the assassin's 
dagger had pierced the heart, not of Conrad, 
but of his true and gallant officer. The 
bishop escaped the royal vengeance by 
flight ; but the abbot of Saint Emmeram's, 
who had joined the conspirators, was flung 
into chains ; and the abbey, the houses of 
the chapter, and all the ecclesiastical resi- 
dences, were plundered by the king's sol- 
diery. The pope, as might be expected, 
sided with the bishop and excommunicated 
Conrad and Otho ; but the murderer Ho- 
henfels, after having for some time eluded 
justice, was killed by a thunderbolt ! 

In the church of the Dominicans is a 
chapel where Albertus Magnus, Bishop of 
Ratisbon, the successor of his unworthy 
namesake, is said to have given his lectures. 
This great philosopher and excellent pre- 
late is reported by the ancient chroniclers 



18 BAVARIA. 

to have possessed the accommodating but 
rather extraordinary faculty attributed to 
the Irishman's bird, viz. that of being in 
two places at once. It is asserted that, at 
the very moment he was holding forth to 
his attentive pupils from the chair still 
exhibited in the chapel, he was to be seen 
busily employed in his study at Donaustauf, 
about twelve miles off. For despatch of 
business this must have been an invaluable 
accomplishment, and accounts most satis- 
factorily for the magnitude and research 
of his literary and scientific labours. The 
Neue-Pfarre Kirche was formerly famous 
for a shrine of the Virgin called the Schone 
Maria, to which from ten to twelve thou- 
sand pilgrims frequently repaired at a time 
from different parts of Bavaria. The Ober 
Munster and the Nieder Munster were 
both convents, the abbesses of which alone 
were obliged to take the vow of chastity. 
Otto II. and his Empress Adelheid are 
buried in the latter, which was founded in 
the tenth century by Judith, daughter of 
Arnold, Duke of Bavaria, and wife of Duke 
Henry I. The Ober Munster was founded 
by Hemma, Queen of Louis the German, who 



RATISBON. 19 

is buried here. The Karmeliten Kloster, 
founded by the Emperor Ferdinand in 1641, 
is now the custom-house and the town-jail. 
In Ratisbon, formerly, even the horses went 
to church ! On Saint Leonard's Day the 
peasantry of the neighbourhood brought 
their whole stud gaily caparisoned, and in- 
dulged each animal with a peep into theMal- 
theser-Kirche, a pious precaution, which 
was supposed to preserve them the year 
round from the staggers, and indeed every 
other disorder that horse-flesh is heir to. 

I had nearly forgotten the promenades. 
They are pretty, and run all round the 
town. The remains of an old cross are 
pointed out in them, as having once been 
the centre of the city. In another part is a 
temple to the memory of Keppler, the astro- 
nomer, who died here in 1630, and of whom, 
says Prof. Schultes, it may be said as of our 
English poet Butler, " He asked for bread, 
and they gave him a stone." A monument 
has also been erected to a M. Goertz, " par- 
cequ'il etoit assez riche," said our domes- 
tique de place, an excellent reason, and one 
which has justified many a more extraordi- 
nary proceeding. Then there are the Un- 

c 2 



20 



BAVARIA. 



terhaltungshaus, (a handsome building, 
which combines the theatre, the assembly- 
rooms, and heaven knows what besides) — 
the new Maximilian-Joseph-Gasse, which 
has risen upon the ruins of 1809, and the 
nearly effaced figures of Goliath and David 
upon the wall of a house, the work appa- 
rently of the sixteenth century. 

And now farewell, old Regensburg ! The 
Roman, the Vandal, the Frank and the Hun, 
the Bohemian, the Austrian, and the Swede, 
the ancient and the modern Gaul, have, by 
turns, besieged, stormed, plundered, and 
burnt thee. Thy air of gravity becomes a 
city that hath suffered and survived so 
many disasters ; and the antique gold and 
silver coifs that glitter on the braided locks 
of thy fair daughters, harmonize well with 
the Gothic glories of thy cathedral and the 
romantic interest of thy Turnier-Platz. I 
confess it grieves me to notice the gradual 
disappearance throughout the Continent of 
those distinctions of dress which have 
hitherto seemed, as strongly as language 
and countenance, to mark out the natural 
boundaries of nations and provinces : but I 
console myself with the hope, that Europe 



RATISBON. 21 

may, with its old habits, fling off its old pre- 
judices, and that its millions will finally- 
become as much like one great family in 
affection, as they promise to look, shortly, 
from the uniformity of their costume. 

On Monday, September 9, about eight in 
the morning, having completed our simple 
preparations, and safely stowed away under 
the benches of our little cabin a hamper 
containing some eatables and a few bottles 
of excellent Rhenish and Austrian wines, 
we stept into our weitz-zille. which awaited 
us just above the stone bridge, and having 
shot through an arch of it where there is a 
fall something like that at old London at 
half-flood, and struggled a few moments 
with a strong eddy, occasioned by an island 
and some corn-mills, we passed under the 
wooden bridge, and commenced our voyage, 
a strong wind blowing unfortunately right 
in our teeth. The sky was however cloud- 
less, and the day, as it advanced, proving 
exceedingly warm, the wind was only un- 
welcome as it threatened to retard, in some 
measure, our progress, and prevent our 
making the proposed landing and resting- 



22 BAVARIA. 

places in due time. The average depth of the 
Danube between Donauworth and Passau, 
according to H. von Riedl, is ten feet ; 
near Regensburg it is about eleven feet 
deep, and something broader than the 
Thames at Putney. The right bank of the 
river, nearly all the way to Straubing, is 
low, sedgy, and Dutch like. St. Niklas, 
Einhausen, Irl, Ober, and Unter Barbing or 
Barbling, are the names of the little old 
villages that are scattered along it ; but, 
on the left bank, the eye is soon attracted 
by the bold mountains which, abruptly 
rising behind the villages of Regenhausen, 
Weichs, Schwabelweiss, and Dergenheim, 
or Tegenheim, follow the windings of the 
flood in an almost unbroken chain to within 
a few miles of Vienna. The ruins of the castle 
of Donaustauf, cresting a round, bluff rock, 
having at its foot the little market-town of 
the same name, are the first interesting object 
that presents itself on approaching them. 
The great strength and commanding situa- 
tion of this fortress, anciently called Toum- 
stouphen, rendered it an object of con- 
siderable importance during the middle 
ages ; and many are the tales of the " Battles, 



DONAUSTAUF. 23 

sieges, fortunes, it hath past. 59 Henry the 
Proud having taken it from the cathedral 
and chapter of Regensburg in 1132, the 
citizens invested it in the following year so 
closely, that the garrison, driven to extre- 
mities by hunger, set fire to the building, 
and sallying forth, cut their way through 
the besiegers. In 1 146 it was again taken ; 
and in 1159 again besieged. In 1250 it 
was the scene of that outrage which has 
already been related in the story of Fre- 
derich von Ewesheim. After the death of 
Albertus Magnus, who, in 1260, succeeded 
his notorious namesake, and here pursued 
his studies, Donaustauf was again snatched 
from its holy masters, and once more re- 
stored to them, through the assistance of 
Bavaria, in 1343. In 1355 it was pledged 
to the counsellor Ruger Reich for eleven 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five 
florins, and sold afterwards to Charles IV. 
of Bohemia for five thousand. In vain did 
the holy fathers protest against the sale, 
and denounce spiritual as well as temporal 
vengeance against the purchaser. Charles 
was too shrewd and too powerful to fear 
either; and so long as he lived, Donaustauf 



24 



BAVARIA 



remained the barrier of Bohemia. Under 
his feeble successors, however, the chapter 
recovered its fortress, and in 1486 it was 
again pledged to Bavaria. Bernhard, Duke 
of Saxe- Weimar, took it, and reduced it to 
its present condition in 1634. The Prince of 
Thurm and Taxis, who bought the lordship 
of Worth, in which it is situated, keeps, if I 
may be allowed the expression, the ruin in 
repair, and bestows some care on the gar- 
dens, which clothe the eastern side of its 
mountain seat. From the ramparts, the view 
extends eastwards over Worth to Straubing 
and Bogen ; and westward, over Ratisbon, 
to the mountains of Abach. On either side, 
the eye traces the bright Danube, now 
flowing majestically right onwards, now 
boldly sweeping round some rocky point, 
or gracefully winding amidst large tracts of 
meadow land — here almost doubling itself 
by a sudden and unexpected curve, and, lost 
for a short time amongst groves and ham- 
lets, glittering again like a broad lake, 
where it resumes its eastern course far in 
the blue distance. Directly beneath lie 
the little market-town of Donaustauf ; the 
church of Saint Salvator, which was built, 



DONAUSTAUF. 25 

according to Schultes, in expiation of the 
crime of some soldiers who dishonoured 
the Host ; the wooden bridge, said to be 
one of the longest on the river, and which 
is partially destroyed every year in order 
to give passage to the ice ; and below it, 
on the left bank, numberless gardens and 
vineyards, spotted with the white villas of 
the wealthy citizens of Regensburg, who, 
escaping from commercial cares, on a fine 
summer Sunday evening, look back through 
the smoke of their pipes upon the dusky 
towers of their cathedral with, no doubt, 
similar feelings of satisfaction to those with 
which the London tradesman observes from 
his retreat at Highgate, or Hornsey, the 
distant dome of Saint Paul's rising above 
the smother of our huge metropolis. Leav- 
ing Donaustauf, we passed the small village 
of Sulzbach, Demling, Bach, (celebrated for 
the mines in its neighbourhood,)Frenkhofen, 
Krukenberg, Oberach, Kirchkirfen or Kir- 
fen-holz, and Wisent, on the little stream of 
that name, on the left bank ; and those of 
Sarching, Friesheim, Ilkhofen, Auburg, El- 
theim, Saissling, and Seppenhausen, on the 
right, some of them consisting of scarcely 



26 BAVARIA. 

half a dozen houses, their humble, white- 
washed churches roofed with shingles, and 
the little Kremlin-looking cupolas of their 
steeples painted a deep red. We now ra- 
pidly approached Worth, the chateau of the 
Prince of Thurm and Taxis, which had been 
visible from the time of our passing Kirfen- 
holz, but, from the extraordinary sinuosities 
of the river, appeared, at one moment, to 
have been left entirely behind us. The 
exterior is anything but prepossessing, re- 
calling to the mind of a cockney, like my- 
self, the dead walls and extinguisher-capped 
towers of the Penitentiary at Milbank. The 
dark firs that rise beside it, and the rich 
meadows that gently slope from its terrace 
wall to the water's edge, are, it must be 
confessed, infinitely more romantic and or- 
namental than the rows of cabbages and 
stunted willows that form the foreground 
to its inglorious likeness, — still the idea of a 
prison would, I think, be with any stranger 
the predominant one. Worth is, however, 
a palace, and, no doubt, handsome enough 
when you are in it. It has been, like most 
of the castles and palaces in this part of the 
world, bought and sold, pledged and re- 



WORTH. 27 

deemed for all sorts of sums by all sorts of 
people. Those who wish to know the exact 
number of florins it was valued at during 
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, wall 
find them scrupulously set down by Prof. 
Schultes ; but, as no matters of historical 
or romantic interest are connected with its 
various transfers, I shall content myself by 
merely stating, that it was anciently the 
property of the bishops of Ratisbon, and 
came to Bavaria in 1809, shortly after which 
period it was bought by its present posses- 
sor. Nearly opposite Worth, upon the right 
bank, is the small town of Pfatter, or Pfada, 
as it is called in the dialect of the country, 
the first post-station from Ratisbon. A 
little streamlet of the same name falls into 
the Danube beside it. A dozen small vil- 
lages, remarkable only for appellations that 
would cost an untutored Englishman as 
many teeth to speak them — Gmiinden, Tie- 
fer-thal, Hochdorf, Stadeldorf, Niederach- 
dorf, Sinzendorf, Hunthofen, Kirchenroth, 
Ober and Unter Motzing, Kessnach, Hart- 
zeitdorn, &c, are scattered along the banks, 
both now exceedingly flat and uninterest- 
ing, the mountains on the left having re- 



28 BAVARIA. 

treated from the river, which here winds 
and doubles like a hunted hare. My com- 
panion and I therefore landed, and leaving 
the boat to thread the mazes of this watery- 
labyrinth, strode forward at a good round 
pace across the fields towards Straubing, 
the tin-capped steeples of which were flash- 
ing back the rays of the setting sun. The 
great plain extending from the gates of Ra- 
tisbon, as far as Pleinting, is supposed to 
have been once a large morass, which, on 
being drained, has left a rich black soil seve- 
ral feet deep (the celebrated Dunkelboden.) 
The peasantry of this favoured district are 
exceedingly proud, and fond of all kinds of 
finery. The finest Swiss and Dutch linen, 
silk and satin kerchiefs of the gayest hues, 
Brabant lace, and gold and silver stuffs of 
all descriptions, are in constant requisition. 
The men wear gold rings, and generally 
two gold watches. The black velvet or 
embroidered silk boddices of the women 
are laced with massive silver chains, from 
which hang a profusion of gold and silver 
trinkets, hearts, crosses, coins, medals, &c. 
The custom of tying a black silk handker- 
chief round the neck, with the bow behind, 



sossau. 29 

and the ends hanging down the back, is, I 
think, peculiar to Bavaria. A wedding here 
is a scene of great extravagance and up- 
roar ; many tables, accommodating at least 
a dozen persons each, are set out with all 
manner of good things, and the feasting 
continues for several days, all day long. 
Ignorant, however, as they are wealthy and 
luxurious, few even of the most respectable 
amongst them can either read or write, 
and are therefore, says Schultes, entitled 
in every respect to the appellation by 
which they are generally distinguished, i. e. 
"Bauern vomDunkelboden" — " Peasants of 
the dark earth." Sossau, on the left bank, 
shortly after you enter the Landgericht of 
Straubing, is celebrated for a picture of the 
Virgin, which, in 1534, the angels brought 
here in a boat, from a village where the 
doctrines of Luther had taken root, to the 
great indignation of the holy portrait. 
Those who are sufficiently sceptical to 
doubt the veracity of this story, may con- 
sult the account of the monks of Kloster 
Windberg*, (to which Sossau belonged,) 

* Kloster Windberg was originally a castle belonging to 
the Counts of Bogen. Albert of Bogen and Hedwig his 



30 BAVARIA. 

printed " cum licentia superiorum," and 
illustrated by a fresco-painting on the walls 
of their house at Straubing. The whole 
angelic crew are there to be seen equipped 
in sailors' dresses, tugging away with " a 
long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all to- 
gether," (the last pull, by the way, must 
have been an extra miracle on the Danube, 
the advantage of such unanimity never en- 
tering the heads of the honest boatmen), 
and having on board not only the offended 
picture, but the outraged church itself! — I 
have heard of a worthy enactor of old Ca- 
pulet, who, by a curious transposition of his 
prepositions, commanded the astonished 
Juliet to prepare 

To go to Paris with St. Peter s church. 

Now, however extraordinary this paternal 
injunction might appear to a modern here- 
tical London audience, it is obvious, upon 
due consideration, that the speech, being 
placed in the mouth of a Roman Catholic 
of the sixteenth century, was not so much 
out of character as might be imagined at 

wife founded the monastery in 1145. In the neighbourhood, 
two hermits are said to have resided, one of whom murdered 
the other. 



SOSSAU. 31 

the moment. The chapel of Loretto and 
the church of Sossau had set a noble ex- 
ample of locomotion, and Saint Peter's of 
Verona could have no rational reason for 
refusing to follow it upon a proper occa- 
sion. 

Ainhausen, the property of Count Lie- 
belfing, on the high road to Rinkheim and 
Kagers, an old village from which the Lords 
of Kagers formerly took their title, are the 
last villages on the right bank of the river 
before you arrive at Straubing, the first 
town of consequence on the Danube after 
leaving Ratisbon* 



32 



CHAPTER II. 

Straubing — The Bridge — The Hauptstrasse — The Stadtthurm 
— The Pfarr, or Collegiat Kirche — Story of Agnes Ber- 
nauer — The Ramparts — The Atzelburg — Ober Altaich — 
Bogenberg — Kloster Metten — The Natternberg — Deggen- 
dorf — The Gnade Zeit — Confluence of the Isar and the 
Danube — Rafts from Munich to Vienna — Nieder Altaich — 
Hengersberg — Osterhofen — Hoch-winzer — Hof kirchen — 
Kinzing — Hildegartsberg — Vilshofen — Collegiat Stift — 
The Sandbach — New Road to Passau — Maximilian Jo- 
seph I., late King of Bavaria — Louis I., the present Mo- 
narch — Statue of a Lion — Approach to Passau. 

Straubing is pleasantly situated on the 
right bank of a small arm of the river, or, 
as it might be called, a canal, through which 
part of the noble stream has, of late years, 
been conducted to the very walls. In front 
of it, the mountains, which, as I have al- 
ready mentioned, have retreated from the 
left bank, form a fine amphitheatre, in the 
centre of which, the insulated Bogenberg 
rises like a pyramid. Like most cities of 
any size and antiquity in Germany, Strau- 
bing is divided into an Alt-Stadt and a 
Neu-Stadt. The old town is conjectured 
by some to have been the Serviodurum 
Augusti of the Romans, the seat of the 



STRAUBING. 33 

Castra Augustana, &c, arid traces of some 
entrenchments, supposed to be Roman, are 
still to be seen just without the walls. The 
name of " Straubinga" (" Curtis Regia") 
first occurs in an instrument, dated A. D. 
902. About forty years afterwards, we 
hear of the deeds of the noble knights of 
Straubing and Stein. At the latter end of 
the tenth century, Henry III. obtained the 
surname of Pious, by presenting Straubing 
to his brother Otto, Bishop of Augsburg, 
who left it to the cathedral and chapter of 
that place. It was governed by an officer 
called a Vice Dom, till the commencement 
of the thirteenth century, when New Strau- 
bing was built, and the old town re-annexed 
to the Duchy of Bavaria. Frederick the 
Handsome, of Austria, besieged and took it 
in 1319. In 1332, Louis the Bavarian lay 
before the town from the 4th of July till 
the 24th of August, when, provoked by its 
obstinate resistance, he threw a bridge over 
the Danube, by Kagers, and, making a des- 
perate assault at the Spital-gate, succeeded 
at last in carrying the place by storm. His 
son, Duke William, first husband of Matilda 



34 BAVARIA. 

of Lancaster, built the castle on the Da- 
nube, A. D. 1356. It is now converted into 
barracks. In 1393, Straubingwas entirely 
destroyed by fire, and the conflagration 
having begun at a joiner's, no person of 
that trade was permitted to reside in the 
city from that time till the year 1540. It 
was most vigorously defended against the 
Duke of Saxe- Weimar, in 1633. The bur- 
gomaster, Holler, an excellent marksman, 
shot upwards of thirty of his best officers 
from the ramparts. In 1635, Straubing was 
visited by a dreadful pestilence. In 1704, 
it was taken by the Austrians, and, in 1780, 
the best half of it fell a second time a prey 
to the flames. The loss was estimated at 
more than a million of florins. 

Straubing in its present state is cheer- 
ful and tolerably regular, but more like 
a Dutch than a Bavarian town ; the bridge 
across the Danube is pretty, and the gate 
which terminates it fantastic. On entering 
the Hauptstrasse or High-street, the eye is 
attracted by a quadrangular tower, forming 
part of the Rath-haus or Guildhall, and 
much prized by the Straubingers, who con- 



STRAUBING. 35 

sider it the most ancient relic in the place ; 
but it seems to have been a terrible annoy- 
ance to Professor Schultes, who neglects no 
opportunity of expressing his antipathy to 
it, and astonishment that any reverence for 
its antiquity should prevent the removal of 
a building, which hinders people from look- 
ing through the town like a telescope- 
This Stadt-thurm as it is called is two hun- 
dred feet high, and is now surmounted by 
a tin spire, with four smaller pinnacles at the 
corners. There are two Latin inscriptions 
upon it, one proclaiming its erection in 
1208, and the other its renovation in 1783. 
The largest building in the town is the 
Pfarr, or Collegiat Kirche, commenced 
about 1432, and finished in 1512. In a 
small chapel in the churchyard of St. 
Peter's, in the Alt-stadt, is a red marble 
tablet, on which reclines the effigy of a 
female surrounded by the following in- 
scription, «* Anno Domini, mccccxxxvi, 
xii Die Octobris, Obiit Agnes Bernauerin. 
Requiescat in pace." 



D2 



36 



BAVARIA, 



ik-D-jy^^WW 




mm+m~> 



The fate of this unfortunate lady has 
furnished the subject for a tragedy to the 
Count of Torring Seefeld, and one more 
deeply affecting is scarcely to be found in 
the page of history. 

Albert, the only son of Duke Ernst of 
Bavaria, was one of the most accomplished 
and valiant Drinces of the age he lived in. 
His father and family had selected for his 
bride, the young Countess Elizabeth of 
Wiirtemberg. The contract was signed and 
the marriage on the point of taking place, 



STRAUBING. 37 

when the lady suddenly eloped with a more 
favoured lover, John Count of Werden- 
berg. The tidings were brought to Albert 
at Augsburg, where he was attending 
a grand tournament given in honour of 
the approaching nuptials, but they fell un- 
heeded on his ear, as his heart, which had 
not been consulted in the choice of his 
bride, had just yielded itself, "rescue or no 
rescue," to the bright eyes of a young 
maiden whom he had distinguished from 
the crowd of beauties that graced the lists. 
Virtuous as she was lovely, Agnes Ber- 
nauer had obtained amongst the citizens 
of Augsburg, the appellation of " the 
angel :" but she was the daughter of a 
bather, an employment considered at that 
period, in Germany, as particularly dis- 
honourable. Regardless of consequences, 
however, he divulged his passion, and their 
marriage was shortly afterwards privately 
celebrated in Albert's castle at Vohberg. 
Their happiness was doomed to be of short 
duration. Duke Ernst became possessed 
of their secret, and the anger of the whole 
house of Munich burst upon the heads 
of the devoted couple ! Albert was com- 



38 BAVARIA 

manded to sign a divorce from Agnes, 
and prepare immediately to marry Anna, 
daughter of Duke Erich of Brunswick. 
The indignant prince refused to obey, and 
being afterwards denied admission to a 
tournament at Regensburg, on the plea of 
his having contracted a dishonourable alli- 
ance, he rode boldly into the lists upon the 
Heide Platz, before the whole company de- 
clared Agnes Bernauer his lawful wife and 
duchess, and conducted her to his palace 
at Straubing, attended as became her rank. 
Every species of malice and misrepresenta- 
tion was now set at work to ruin the unfor- 
tunate Agnes. Albert's uncle, Duke Wil- 
helm, who was the only one of the family 
inclined to protect her, had a sickly child, 
and she was accused of having adminis- 
tered poison to it. But the duke detected 
the falsehood and became more firmly her 
friend. Death too soon deprived her of 
this noble protector, and the fate of the 
poor duchess was immediately sealed. 
Taking advantage of Albert's absence from 
Straubing, the authorities of the place 
arrested her on some frivolous pretext, and 
the honest indignation with which she as- 



STRAUBING, 39 

serted her innocence, was tortured into 
treason by her malignant judges. She was 
condemned to die, and on Wednesday, Oc- 
tober 12th, 1436, was thrown over the 
bridge into the Danube, amidst the lamen* 
tations of the populace *. Having suc- 
ceeded in freeing one foot from the bonds 
which surrounded her, the poor victim, 
shrieking for help and mercy, endeavoured 
to reach the bank by swimming, and had 
nearly effected a landing, when a barbarian 
in office, with a hooked pole, caught her 
by her long fair hair, and dragging her back 
into the stream, kept her under water until 
the cruel tragedy was completed. The 
fury and despair of Albert on receiving 
these horrid tidings were boundless. He 
flew to his father's bitterest enemy, Louis 
the Bearded, at Ingolstadt, and returned at 
the head of an hostile army to his native 

* Professor Schultes says, the date on the tombstone is in- 
correct, and that it should be October 12th, 1435, as Albert 
married again 1436. The bridge from which she was pre- 
cipitated, was that which crossed the old arm of the Danube, 
and no longer exists. The present bridge passes over the new 
branch of the river, that washes the town and connects its 
northern side with the Island called the Donauwiese, in 
which the famous Sossau fair, which began on the Sunday 
after Michaelmas, and lasted eight days, was formerly held. 



40 



BAVARIA, 



land, breathing vengeance against the mur- 
derers of his beloved wife. The old duke, 
sorely pressed by the arms of his injured 
son, and tormented by the stings of con- 
science, implored the mediation of the 
Emperor Sigismund, who succeeded after 
some time in pacifying Albert, and recon- 
ciling him to his father, who, as a proof of 
his repentance, instituted a perpetual mass 
for the soul of the martyred Agnes Ber- 
nauer. Albert afterwards married Ann of 
Brunswick, by whom he had ten children. 

The ramparts of this town are now al- 
most entirely demolished, and the fosses 
turned into kitchen-gardens. The former 
were once planted with mulberry-trees, but 
they were destroyed during the late war, 
when Straubing, though not absolutely 
stormed or invested, suffered considerably 
from the constant passage of troops, and 
the skirmishing in its neighbourhood. The 
Straubingers are more celebrated for good 
living than hard work. 

" On y mange et digere 
Compere, compere ; 
On y fait bonne chere 
Voila tout le mystere !" 

is the quotation of Prof. Schultes, and may 



STRAUB1NG. 41 

with great propriety be applied to many- 
bodies corporate, of more pretension than 
the humble one of Straubing. 

The whole country was lighted up by a 
glorious sunset as we entered the town to 
satisfy our curiosity and our appetite, and 
some time before we returned from those 
important occupations, the " twilight grey" 
had " in her sober livery all things clad." 
We had determined on passing the first 
night on board, in order to reach Vilshofen 
by breakfast-time the following day, as from 
that place we understood the scenery would 
become too interesting to admit of haste, 
or travelling after dark, and preparations 
had been accordingly made by our little 
crew. The sides of the zillewere boarded 
up, and straw and boat-cloaks so arranged 
as to make us a very comfortable couch, 
upon which we had no sooner stretched 
ourselves than the word was given, and by 
the light of the stars we dropped gently 
down the river, passing the Atzelburg and 
Hockstetter-hof on the right bank. The 
former, also called the Aciliusburg, is con- 
jectured by some to have been the retreat of 
the Eoman Consul Acilius, when exiled for 



42 BAVARIA. 

the crime of Christianity, and originally 
named from him Acilia Augusta. In its 
neighbourhood are some entrenchments 
believed to be Roman. Reibersdorf, Klei- 
nau, and Ebling are villages on the right 
bank. Near the latter the small stream of 
the Aitrach joins the Danube. On the left 
is Lenach, remarkable only as having been 
purchased by the monks of Altaich in 1139, 
for ninety-five Pf. Pfennige, about five 
shillings, English. 

Notwithstanding the precautions we had 
taken, I was too cold as well as too curious 
to sleep ; and as the moon got up so did I, 
and, seating myself by the cabin door, 
looked on the gradually brightening land- 
scape, and listened to the songs of the boat- 
men who, as they lazily plied their un- 
wieldy paddles, warbled in their own pecu- 
liar style — a style rendered familiar to 
London ears, by the interesting " Rainer 
family/' for it is not confined to the Tyrol 
— several wild but pleasing melodies. It 
is very provoking that the English should 
be, perhaps, the only people who have no 
idea of singing in parts ; an untutored 
boatman, peasant, or soldier of almost any 



OBER-ALTAICH. 43 

of the continental nations will suddenly 
strike in with an extemporary and very cre- 
ditable bass, though the air be led off by 
an utter stranger to him. On the banks of 
the Main at Aschaffenburg, and at Mcihd- 
ling in the Wienerwald, I was particularly 
struck with this pleasing talent, and have 
noticed it repeatedly both in France and 
Switzerland. The complaint that the Eng- 
lish are not a musical nation is in my opi- 
nion better borne out by this circumstance, 
than by the alleged deficiency of celebrated 
composers, or the want of taste in the 
mixed audiences of our Concert Rooms and 
Theatres. There is certainly no com- 
parison between "the native wood-notes 
wild" of a Devonshire ploughman, and 
those of a Bavarian bauer. 

We soon came in sight of Ober-Altaich, 
a celebrated Benedictine kloster. A Dru- 
idical altar is said to have been destroyed 
here by the holy Parminius, who, with his 
own hand, cut down the oak under which 
it stood, and caused a chapel to be erected 
upon the spot. The convent was founded 
by Duke Uttilo II. A.D. 731, who brought 
thither twelve Benedictine monks and an 



44 BAVARIA, 

abbot from Reichenau, in the Lake of Con- 
stance. The Hungarians destroyed it in 
907, and it was a ruin for nearly two hun- 
dred years, when Count Frederick of Bo- 
gen rebuilt it, and, with his wife and sons, 
so liberally endowed and patronised it, that 
in the thirteenth century there were no 
less than one hundred and eighteen monks 
here, most of them of noble birth ; and 
the dignity of prince was granted to its 
abbots by Louis the Brandenburgher. In 
1634, Ober-Altaich was burnt by the 
Swedes, but shortly afterwards rose from 
its ashes, more magnificent than ever, — a 
circumstance, says Schultes, not at all sur- 
prising when you consider that, in spite of 
their vow of poverty, the holy brother- 
hood enjoyed an annual income of thirty 
thousand florins (between four and five 
thousand pounds sterling,) an immense 
sum for this part of Germany, where a 
florin in the hands of a native will go 
nearly as far as a pound in England. Pass- 
ing the mouth of the little Kinzach, and the 
villages of Saut and Hundersdorf, we at 
length approached the long-seen Bogen- 
berg. Upon its summit lie the last crumb- 



BOGEN, 45 

ling relics of an old fortress, the Stamm- 
chloss* of the once-dreaded Counts of Bo- 
gen. Germany in the times they flourished 
was, as the Legate Cupanus described it in 
his letters to Rome — a den of thieves. 
The deplorable state into which the whole 
empire was plunged by the quarrels be- 
tween the popes and the house of Swabia, 
the almost total annihilation of the imperial 
power by the death of Conrad IV., and the 
interregnum that followed the death of 
Richard King of the Romans, in 1271, is 
vividly described by contemporary writers, 
one of whom, in the language of scripture, 
exclaims, " In those days there was no king 
in Israel, and every one did that which was 
right in his own eyes." " The earth (says 
another) mourned and languished, Mount 
Lebanon was shaken from its foundations, 
and the moon was turned into bloodf.' 5 
The terms noble and robber were synony- 
mous, and the higher the rank the more 

* The original castle of a particular family — the cradle of 
the race. Schloss is, however, a most convenient word, as 
it not only stands for a castle or a palace, but for those build- 
ings which are both or neither The chateaux of France, and 
the seats or mansions of England. 

t The Archbishop of Cologne, in a Letter to the Pope. 



46 BAVARIA. 

lawless and rapacious were the deeds of 
the titled ruffian. The castle of Bogen 
was admirably adapted for a bandit's hold. 
Seated upon the apex of a pyramidical 
rock, inaccessible but by one narrow pass 
on its eastern side, which a handful of 
determined men might keep against a host, 
and commanding a view over nearly half 
the dukedom of Bavaria, its lawless lord 
watched from its battlements, like a vul- 
ture, the approach of his unsuspecting 
prey, and, pouncing upon it, bore it up in 
triumph to his mountain eyrie, where he 
feasted at his leisure in security. The 
domains of the Counts of Bogen extended 
from Regensburg to the Ilz, and from the 
shores of the Danube far into Bohemia. 
Their friendship and alliance were sought 
by King and Kaiser, by the Dukes of Ba- 
varia, and the Markgraves of Austria ; and 
their feuds with the Counts of Ortenburg 
deluged the land repeatedly with blood. 
But bigotry and superstition lost them 
what rapine and murder had won. Their 
revenues filled the coffers of greedy abbots, 
and their castles were gradually trans- 
formed into convents. An image of the 



BOGEN. 47 

Virgin was one day seen floating upon the 
Danube, and drifting ashore near the little 
market-town of Bogen, which lies at the 
foot of the mountain, on its western side, 
rested on a stone on the bank. Count 
Answin, struck with so miraculous an oc- 
currence, presented the castle of Bogen to 
the kloster of Ober Altaich, which his 
brother Frederick had founded. Forty 
years afterwards, Count Albert I. of Bogen 
was wheedled out of the castle of Wind- 
berg by another holy fraternity ; and about 
the middle of the thirteenth century the fa- 
mily became extinct, by the death of Count 
Albert IV., who had followed the unfor- 
tunate Emperor, Frederick II., to the Holy 
Land* Ludmilla, the mother of this last 
Count of Bogen, was a Bohemian Princess ; 
and, on the death of her husband, Albert 
III., Louis II., Duke of Bavaria, becoming 
enamoured of her from report, offered her 
marriage, provided, says the chronicle, he 
should like her upon a personal acquain- 
tance. Ludmilla consented to this propo- 
sition, and the duke visited her accord- 
ingly. Suspecting, however, the sincerity 
of his protestations, she one day requested 



48 BAVARIA. 

him, as in a joke, to plight his troth to her 
in a tapestried chamber, and to consider 
the figures of three knights, worked in the 
hangings, as witnesses of the contract. 
The duke, to humour this apparently- 
childish fancy, smilingly held up his hand, 
and took the oath required of him, when, 
to his utter astonishment, three living 
knights, " good men and true," stepped 
out from behind the tapestry, where they 
had been purposely concealed by the 
cunning Bohemian, and compelled the 
ensnared potentate to ratify his pledge*. 
The church of our Lady of Bogen, 
erected in honour of the miraculous image 
before- mentioned, stands beside the ruins 
of the castle, and from six to eight 
thousand pilgrims have been known at 
one time to congregate about its far- 
famed shrine. It has been several times 
injured by lightning, and its roof carried 
away by the high winds, a natural conse- 

* Henry During has a ballad on this subject, entitled, 
" Die Zeugen," (the Witnesses.) Vide ' Ruinen oder Tas- 
chenbuch ziir Geschicte verfalener Ritterburgen und Schlos- 
ser, &c. Wien, 1826. 1 Sammlung.' One might be pardoned 
for supposing the proverb of " Walls have ears," to have 
arisen from this adventure. 



BOGEN. 49 

quence of its exposed situation. A thunder- 
storm burst over it on Whit-Tuesday, A.D. 
1618, during one of these meetings, and 
the lightning having fired the steeple, such 
confusion ensued, that fourteen persons 
were crushed to death*. The Bogenberg 
and its vicinity have been fertile in miracles. 
A ridiculous story is told by iEmilius Hem- 
mauer, a prior of Ober-Altaich, about a 
moving altar, and in the little market-town 
is shown a tooth of St. Sebastian, over 
which water is poured into a goblet ; and 
it is gravely asserted that whoever drinks 
of this water, need fear no infectious dis- 
order for twelve months to come. The 
little rivers Bogen and Menach join the 
Danube near this spot, and on the opposite 



* " Tausend sechs hundert zehn und acht, 
Am dritten Pfingstag, nach Mittnacht. 
Selling das Wildfeur oben ein, 
Lief aus dem Thurm in d'kirch hinein ; 
Die kirch gesteckt voll Kirchfarther war 
Der brennets viel : zwey sturben gar. 
In diesem Schreken, Strauss, und Brauss 
Drang alle welt zur Kirchen auss; 
Der gross Gewalt erdruekt ohnverschon 
Vier manns und zehen weibsperson 
Da liegn ihr in zwey Grabern todt 
Drey Mann, sibn Weiber : trust sie Gott." 

* Hemraauer,' a. a. O. 357. 



50 BAVARIA. 

shore are the villages of Absam and Her- 
mansdorf. 

As the Danube approaches its confluence 
with the Isar, its banks become bolder and 
more interesting ; a crowd of villages pre- 
sent themselves, amongst which the most 
important are Pfelling, whence a consider- 
able quantity of wood is sent to Vienna ; 
Irlbach, the principal depot for the corn 
of the Dunkelboden, before the Danube 
washed the walls of Straubing; and Wi- 
schelburgh, on the site of the Roman Biso- 
nium, destroyed by the tremendous Attila. 

Kloster-Metten, on the left bank, accord- 
ing to the legend, owes its foundation to 
the following circumstances : A herdsman 
of Michaelbuch, named Gamelbert, awak- 
ing from a deep sleep, in which he had 
been indulging beneath a tree, found, to 
his surprise, a book lying upon his breast. 
On examination he found it was written 
in English, and, though he knew just as 
much of the language as the beasts that 
were grazing before him, he immediately 
commenced reading it, and was so edified 
by its contents, that he abandoned his flocks 
and herds, and, repairing to Rome, became 



KLOSTER-METTEN. 51 

a Christian priest. On his way thither he 
baptised a boy, whom he named Utto, and 
desired his parents to send the lad to him 
when he became a man ; they did so, and 
Gamelbert made over to him the care of 
the souls of the worthy inhabitants of 
Michaelbuch. Utto, however, had no 
great affection for his new calling, and 
leaving the poor souls to take care of them- 
selves, crossed the Danube, and wandered 
into the Waldes, where he built a her- 
mitage, in honour of the Archangel Mi- 
chael, near a spring, which is still called 
Utto's Spring, and amused himself with 
sundry curious pranks, amongst which was 
the rather difficult one of hanging his axe 
upon a sunbeam ! Charlemagne, hunting 
in the neighbourhood, caught the holy 
hermit in the fact, and, astonished, as well 
he might be, by so extraordinary a per- 
formance, promised to grant him any boon 
he might be pleased to ask. Utto re- 
quested that a convent might be built on 
the spot, and Kloster-Metten was erected 
at the command of Charlemagne. 

On the opposite side to Kloster-Metten, 

E 2 



52 BAVARIA. 

suddenly rises the remarkable Natternberg 
the only rock on the right bank from 
Prufening to Pleinting, a distance of up- 
wards of eighty English miles. It is nearly 
three hundred feet high ; and on its sum- 
mit are the ruins of another castle, which 
belonged to the Counts of Bogen, who 
made it their residence in 1232. The 
curious appearance of this mass of granite, 
standing in solitary majesty upon this ex- 
tensive plain, and cut off, as it were, from 
its giant brethren of the Bohmer-Wald 
by the bright and trenchant Danube, has 
given rise to many speculations amongst 
the geologists of Germany ; but while the 
learned are at loggerheads respecting this 
natural phenomenon, the honest people 
who reside in its neighbourhood, and who, 
therefore, surely have a right to a voice 
on the subject, have settled the ques- 
tion completely to their own satisfaction. 
The Devil, say they, hating the Deggen- 
dorfers, for their piety, determined to de- 
stroy them outright; and, with that in- 
tention, brought a rock from Italy, (none 
in the neighbourhood, I presume, being 



THE NATTERNBERG. 53 

suitable to his purpose,) with the mali- 
cious intention of hurling it upon the 
devoted town of Deggendorf, and crushing- 
it, with all its inhabitants, into the Danube. 
Passing opposite to Kloster-Metten, " half 
flying, half on foot," with this formidable 
missile under his arm, the bells of the 
convent rang for the Ave Maria ! The 
virtue of the holy sounds was immediately 
felt by the arch apostate. " Gnashing for 
anguish, and despite, and shame," he 
dropped the mountain "like a hot potatoe," 
and there, where it fell, it stands to this 
day ; an immutable proof of the power of 
bell-ringing, and a monument of the piety 
and narrow escape of the Deggendorfers. 
In the castle, on its crest, Duke Albert of 
Austria besieged his faithless favourite 
Peter Ecker, A.D. 1347; and Henry of 
Landshut was educated within its walls, 
from which circumstance he obtained the 
additional sirname of the Natternberger. 
The castle was reduced to its present 
ruinous state by the Swedes, and now 
belongs to a Count of Preising. From the 
little place, called Fischerdorf, at the foot 
of the mountain, the town of Deggendorf 



54 BAVARIA, 

is seen lying in a beautiful valley, sur- 
rounded by hills that rise in circles, each 
above the other, and having in front the 
Danube; here broader than in anv other 
part of Bavaria, (nearly one thousand two 
hundred feet,) across which is a wooden 
bridge, supported by twenty-six piers, but 
built so slightly, in order that it may be 
easily removed to give an annual passage 
to the ice, that Schultes says, it shakes 
under the curvetting of a single horse. 
Of the ancient history of Deggendorf very 
little is known, its records having been all 
destroyed; some by the Swedes, under 
Bernhard von Weimar, and the rest by 
fire, in 1638. 

Pilgrims, from all parts of Germany, 
flock to Deggendorf upon Saint Michael's 
eve, which is a celebrated Gnade-zeit, 
(time of grace,) when absolution is 
granted to all comers, in consequence of 
some miraculous circumstances that, in 
the year 1337, attended the purloining and 
insulting of the Host by a woman and 
some Jews ; who, having bought the con- 
secrated wafer from her, scratched it with 
thorns till it bled, and the image of a child 



DEGGENDORF. 55 

appeared; baked it, vision and all, in an 
oven ; hammered it upon an anvil, the 
block of which is still shown to the pil- 
grim ; attempted to cram it down " their 
accursed throats," (I quote the words of 
the original description,) bat were pre- 
vented by the hands and feet of the vision 
aforesaid ; and finally, despairing to de- 
stroy it, flung it into a well, which was 
immediately surrounded by a nimbus, &c, 
I should not have noticed these disgusting 
falsehoods, but for the melancholy fact, 
that the circulation of this trumpery story 
was considered a sufficient cause, by the 
pious Deggendorfers, for the indiscrimi- 
nate massacre of all the wretched Jews 
in the place ; which infamous and bloody 
deed was perpetrated the day after St. Mi- 
chael, sanctioned by Christian priests, who, 
in grand procession, carried back the inde- 
structible wafer to the church, and solemnly 
approved, in 1489, by Pope Innocent VIIL, 
who issued his bull for the general ab- 
solution abovementioned*. Above fifty 

* The whole of these circumstances, from the stealing of 
the Host to the granting of the Bull, are represented in 
paintings on the walls of the church. Nearly the same story 



56 BAVARIA. 

thousand pilgrims assembled here in 1801 ; 
and as late as 1815, so considerable were 
their numbers, that the greater part of 
them passed the night in the streets of the 
town, and in the fields in its neighbour- 
hood. 

The moon had set before we passed 
Deggendorf, but the night was light enough 
to see the " Isar rolling rapidly," through 
its many mouths, to join the mighty 
Danube ; and the spire of Plattling in the 
distance, a tolerably sized market-town, 
where there is a bridge across the former 
river, and the post-house, between Strau- 
bing and Vilshofen. Below this bridge, 
the raft-masters of Munich, who leave that 

is told at Bruxelles of three miraculous wafers, which were 
stolen and stabbed by Jews, in 1369 ; and for which imputed 
crime, several of that persecuted people were burnt alive, by 
order of Duke Wenceslaus. The author of ' Les Delices des 
Pays Bas' tells us, that, "Les hosties et les marques durent 
encore aujourd'hui, et ne souffrent pas qu'on les approche 
sans je ne sr:ai quelle horreur toute sainte. On les garde pour 
un gage particulier de la protection divine envers la ville 
de Brusselles." Vol. i. p. 121. It appears that the Deggen- 
dorfers owed the Jews a considerable sum of money ; it is, 
therefore, most probable that the story was got up to enable 
them, as the debt grew troublesome, to wash it out in blood. 
Vide 'Das obsiegende Glaubenswunder des ganzen Christl. 
Churlandes Baiem willsagen unlangbarer Bericht, &c.' 8vo. 
Deggendorf, 1814. 



THE ISAR, 57 

city every Monday for Vienna, unite their 
rafts before they enter the Danube. They 
descend the Isar upon single rafts only; 
but upon reaching this point they lash 
them together in pairs, and in fleets of 
three, four, or six pairs, they set out 
for Vienna. A voyage is made pleasantly 
enough upon these floating islands, as they 
have all the agremens without the con- 
finement of a boat. A very respectable 
promenade can be made from one end to 
the other, and two or three huts erected 
upon them afford shelter in bad weather 
and repose at night. 

Isargemiind, situated in one of the many 
islands, at the confluence of the rivers, is 
the only village on your right till you 
reach Thundorf, where there is a ferry 
over to Nieder Altaich ; on the left are the 
Halbe-meile-kirche, and two or three small 
hamlets. 

Nieder Altaich, another Benedictine 
convent*, and, at one time, the most 

* " So soon another," says Schultes, " I think I hear the 
traveller and the reader exclaim, who may not be acquainted 
with the magnitude of this order." And then he proceeds to 
give, from Hemmauer, the following list of popes, priests, 
emperors, kings, &c. who had, up to tUat time, embraced the 



58 BAVARIA. 

important that the order possessed in 
Bavaria ; its annual income being not less 
than one hundred thousand florins ; stands 
at the foot of the frowning Bohmer-wald, 
which here again bends its bushy brows 
upon the bright river. Saint Parminius is 
said to have acted the same scene here 
which has already been described in the 
notice of Ober Altaich. And Uttilo II., 
not contented with having founded that 
kloster, brought hither an equal number 
of monks from the same monastery of 
Reichenau, and established them in a like 
manner. Its abbot soon became the 
richest in Bavaria ; but the Hungarians, in 
the tenth century, ravaged the country with 
fire and sword, and Nieder Altaich suffered 
the fate of its prototype. In 990, how- 
ever, it was rebuilt, and still more richly 
endowed by the Emperor Otto, and Henry 
Duke of Bavaria. Saint Gotthard came 
barefooted from Reichersdorf, where he 

Order of Saint Benedict: viz. " Sixty-three popes, two hun- 
dred and twenty-three cardinals, two hundred and fifty-five 
patriarchs, sixteen thousand archbishops, forty-six thousand 
bishops, twenty-one emperors, twenty-five empresses, forty- 
eight kings, fifty-four queens, one hundred and forty-six impe- 
rial and royal children, and four hundred and forty- five sove- 
reign princes and dukes ! " Donaufahrten, torn. i. 8. 374. note. 



NIEDER ALTEICH. 59 

was born in 965, of humble parents, and 
from a monk became abbot, and lastly, 
bishop of Hildesheim, where he died, A. D. 
1035. The monks of Nieder Altaich, it 
appears, gradually forgot the pious lessons 
and fair example of Saint Gotthard ; which, 
daring his life, had materially improved 
the reputation of the community ; for in 
1282, we find them making a riddle of 
their abbot with arrows, from an ambush^ 
on the river side, as he is crossing the 
ferry to Thundorf*. The abbots, them- 
selves, also, were many of them unworthy 
successors of that holy man. One of the 
last superiors of this kloster, for instance, 
by name Augustin Ziegler, not contented 
with expending annually upwards of ninety 
thousand florins, ran the fraternity into a 
debt of nearly one hundred thousand be- 
fore he was invited to retire from the cares 
of office, and live in peace at Straubing, 
upon a slender annuity. In the ' Topo- 
graphischen Lexicon von Baiern,' 2 s., 508., 
is the following account of this worthy 

* Memoriale, seu Altachise inferioris memoria superstes, 
ex tabulis, annalibus, diplomatis, &c. 6. Joan. Bapt. Lackner 
etc. Fol. Passavii, 1779. 



60 BAVARIA. 

prelate, who seems to have formed a very 
tolerable idea of the " otium cum dig- 
nitate," which should bless an abbot of 
Benedictines. " Besides his valet he had 
two pages. On his name-day all the prin- 
cipal persons of the government of Strau- 
bing assembled in the grand refectory of 
Nieder Altaich. A band of trumpets and 
kettle-drums was in attendance, from day- 
break, facing his chamber window, and the 
moment his Excellency (for he had pur- 
chased the title of a privy councillor) 
opened his eyes, the pages undrew the 
curtains of cloth of gold, amidst a flourish 
from the trumpets and kettle-drums with- 
out, while a battery of small mortars 
proclaimed in thunder to the surrounding 
country, the dawning of the name-day of 
this important personage." His conduct, 
however, soon became so notorious that 
he was compelled to resign, and retire upon 
an annual allowance of two hundred ducats 
and ten eimers of wine. Ten times has 
this kloster been burned down, and rebuilt 
each time more magnificently ; till at last, 
if we may believe Lackners account, the 



HENGERSBERG. 61 

very oxen of the community eat out of 
marble mangers — " pecora fecit in mar- 
more pabulari ! " 

A little beyond Nieder Altaich, upon the 
same bank, is the town of Hengersberg, 
with its old castle, given, in 1212, by Alt- 
nann von Helingersberg to Saint Mauritius, 
then abbot of that kloster. The Danube 
formerly flowed over part of the bank, and, 
what is now the lazzar-house, was, at that 
time, the river toll-house. At Hengers- 
berg, the Danube again turns from the Bo- 
hemian mountains, as wearied with its un- 
availing efforts to penetrate the giant line ; 
but the gentle eminences which still skirt 
its left bank are enough to preserve its su- 
periority to that of the right, which, all the 
way from Ratisbon, with the solitary ex- 
ception of the Natternberg, had not pre- 
sented one hillock to break the long, low 
line of shore, more in keeping with the 
sluggish stream of a Dutch canal, than with 
the rapid waves of the "boiling Danube/' 
an epithet, by the bye, more descriptive 
than any other of its singular current, 
which, whether running fast or slowly, 



62 BAVARIA. 

keeps up a constant whirling, eddying, and 
bubbling, accompanied by a low hissing 
sound which (pardon, gentle reader, the 
humble comparison) reminded our English 
ears of nothing so much as the singing of a 
tea-kettle. After passing a handful of vil- 
lages, whose almost unpronounceable names 
shall be presented hereafter, in their due 
order, to the curious in consonants, we 
glided by Osterhofen, a little town on the 
side of a small hill, a short distance from 
the shore. It is one of the oldest towns in 
Bavaria, and was the site of the Castra Pe- 
trensia. TheAvars,who desolated the banks 
of the Danube during the sixth, seventh, 
and eighth centuries, here suffered a seri- 
ous defeat ; and the victory having been 
gained on an Easter Sunday, the town 
took the name of Oster-hofen, and still 
bears in its arms a Paschal lamb. In the 
meadow where the battle was fought, and 
named from that event, " Oster-wiese," 
stood Kloster Oster-hofen, erected in ho- 
nour of, and gratitude for, the defeat of 
the barbarians. Hither Uttilo II. brought 
some more of his friends, the Benedictines; 
but the barbarians returned in 765, thirsting 



HOCH-WINZER. 63 

for vengeance, and gratified it by razing the 
Kloster to the ground. It was rebuilt, but 
the rest of its history is neither clear nor 
interesting. The indefatigable Uttilo is 
supposed to have been buried here, where 
also lie, according to report, which may be 
said to lie also, nine of the eleven thousand 
virgins who suffered martyrdom with Saint 
Ursula at Cologne. 

Below Osterhofen, on the left, are the 
picturesque ruins of the Castle of Hoch- 
Winzer, or Ober-Winzer, over the little 
town of the same name. Both town and 
castle received this appellation from the 
considerable vineyards which flourished 
here ; but who the Lords of Winzer were, 
or what feats they achieved, Schultes says 
he has not been able to discover : all that 
is known about them is, that they lie buried 
at Osterhofen. The Pandours reduced the 
castle to its present ruinous condition in 
1741*. Flinschbach, built, in 1230, by the 



* Schultes says, in 1740 ; but this must be a mistake, as 
Maria Theresa was not crowned Queen of Hungary till the 
25th of June, 1741 ; and it was after that ceremony that, clad 
in deep mourning-, with the crown of St. Stephen on her head, 
and the scimitar at her side, she made the affecting address 
to the Diet, which, rousing the whole nation, brought its 



64 



BAVARIA. 



Counts of Bogen, and three or four other 
villages of still less note, on each side of the 
river, enliven the scene, till the ruins of the 
Castle of Hofkirchen rise on the left bank; 
in the fourteenth century, the residence of 
the powerful Counts of Ortenburg, the 
sworn enemies of the Counts of Bogen, and 
the terror of all navigators of the Danube. 

numerous tribes from the banks of the Save, the Drave, the 
Teiss and the Danube, to the royal standard. These troops, 
under the names of Croats, Pandours, Sclavonians, Waras- 
dinians, and Tolpaches, exhibited anew and astonishings pec- 
tacle to the eyes of Europe. By their dress and arms, by the 
ferocity of their manners, and their singular mode of combat, 
they struck terror into the disciplined armies of Germany and 
France. Vide Coxe's ' History of the House of Austria,' 8vo. 
vol. iv. p. 442. — Baron Riesbeck, who also dates the circum- 
stance 1740, says, "When the Hungarian nobility took the field 
for their king Maria Theresa, the first sight of such troops 
struck the French army with a panic. They had, indeed, often 
seen detachments of these ' Diables d 'Hojigrie,' as they used to 
call them ; but a whole army, drawn up in battle array, unpow- 
dered from the general to the common soldier, half their faces 
covered with long whiskers, a sort of round beaver on their 
heads instead of hats, without ruffles or frills to their shirts, 
and without feathers, all clad in rough skins, monstrous 
crooked sabres, ready drawn and uplifted, their eyes darting 
flashes of rage sharper than the beams of their naked sabres, 
was a sight our men had not been accustomed to see." (It 
must be remembered that Riesbeck, though a German, writes 
in the character of a Frenchman.) " Our oldest officers still 
remember the impression these terrible troops made, and how 
difficult it was to make the men stand against them, till they 
had been accustomed to their formidable appearance." Pin- 
kerton's Collect, vol. vi. p. 112. 



KINZING. 65 

What, with barefaced plundering, and the 
exercise of a self-erected right, called 
" grundruhr," which literally signifies 
grounding, scarcely a vessel escaped the 
clutches of these robber lords. This right 
of grundruhr entitled them to take posses- 
sion of every vessel, with its crew and 
cargo, that grounded upon any bank, shoal, 
or island, within their domain. If it but 
grated on the sand, or brushed the shore, 
it was immediately pronounced " grand- 
riirhrig" by the armed vassals of the noble 
bandit, who were continually on the watch, 
and who made no scruple of chasing the 
unfortunate schiffers till they drove them 
aground, and then coolly laid legal claim to 
their property. 

Nearly opposite Winzer is Kinzing, or 
Kinzen, the Castra Quintana, or Augusta 
Quintanorum Colonia of the Romans, upon 
a small height, from whence a little brook 
leaps into the Danube. Several miracles 
are related of Saint Severinus, who resided 
here during the fifth century, how he saved 
the place from inundation, by planting a 
cross on the river's bank ; how he brought 
his dead friend Sylvin to life again, in the 



66 BAVARIA. 

wooden church that stood outside the walls, 
and how Sylvin took it in exceeding ill 
part, and insisted on dying again imme- 
diately. " I beg of thee, I conjure thee," 
exclaimed the indignant Sylvin, " not to 
rouse me from the rest which God has ap- 
pointed for me ! Why hast thou awakened 
me ? Why hast thou brought me back into 
a world, into which I never more wish to 
return ? " The Saint, I suspect, looked un- 
commonly silly on receiving this unexpected 
rap on the knuckles : his apology, if one 
he made, has not come down to us. The 
fact is related on the authority of a young- 
peasant girl, who hid herself in the church, 
on purpose to witness the miracle which 
she suspected was about to be performed ; 
and it would be the height of impertinence, 
under such circumstances, to inquire into 
particulars. 

By the time we had reached Kinzing, 

" Morn, her rosy steps in th' orient clime, 
Advancing, sowed the earth with eastern pearl;" 

And as we made the point which brought 
us in view of the fine old ruin of Hildegarts- 
berg, the sun rising immediately behind it 



HILDEGARTSBERG. 67 

shot his glorious rays, like golden arrows, 
through the loop-holes and windows of its 
bare and blackened walls, that frowned still 
darker from the blaze of light behind them. 
It was a scene in which the spirit of that 
daring artist, Turner, would have revelled. 
My companion, who had given me tolerable 
proofs during our passage from London to 
Ostend, that he could " sleep in spite of 
thunder/' was awakened by my raptures ; 
and we stood, at the head of the boat, gaz- 
ing at the beautiful picture, and basking 
in the welcome beams of u the great lamp 
by which the world is blest," till the river, 
suddenly taking a new direction, brought 
us again into the shadow of the left bank, 
and showed us Vilshofen, with its long light 
bridge and pretty gardens laughing in the 
sunshine, at the farther extremity of the 
valley we had now entered. Little appears 
to be known about Hildegartsberg further 
than that it was like so many other castles 
on the Rhine, the Danube, &c, the hold of 
some robber knight, noble, or priest, of the 
middle ages, and destroyed by Duke Albert 
of Austria, in 1346. 

That most delightful of all chroniclers, 

F 2 



68 BAVARIA. 

Froissart, who commenced his interesting 
annals shortly after this period, gives a la- 
mentable account of the brutality and ava- 
rice of the nobility and clergy of Germany. 
" When a German hath taken a prisoner," 
(says he,) " he putteth him into irons, and 
into hard prison, without any pity, to make 
him pay the greater finance and ransom. 3 '* 
Again, " They are a covetous people above 
all other. They have no pity if they have 
the upper hand, and they demean them- 
selves with cruelty to their prisoners. They 
put them to sundry pains, to compel them 
to make their ransoms greater ; and, if they 
have a lord or a great man for their cap- 
tive, they make great joy thereof, and will 
convey him into Bohemia, Austria, or Sax- 
ony, and keep him in some uninhabitable 
castle. They are people worse than Sara- 
cens or Paynims ; for their excessive cove- 
tousness quencheth the knowledge of ho- 
nour;'^ and Schmidt $ tells us, that an 
archbishop thought he had a fair revenue 
before him, when he built his fortress on 
the junction of four " roads/' 

* Liv. i. ch. 433. t Liv. ii. ch. 125. 

t Geschicbte der Deutschen. 



VILSHOFEN. 69 

Nearly facing Hildegartsberg is Pleint- 
ing, a small market-town, at which the plain 
stretching from the gates of Regensburg, 
along the right bank of the Danube, at last 
terminates, and the beauty of the river really 
commences. The road from Straubing runs 
beside it, upon a sort of terrace, and the 
sight of a post-chariot whirling along, re- 
called our wandering thoughts from the 
dark but interesting ages into which the 
contemplation of ruined tower and cloister 
grey had led them, to the less romantic, 
but, in our situation, equally interesting 
prospect, of a good inn and a capital break- 
fast. -Alas ! it seemed as if neither were 
to be found in Vilshofen, or, at least, that 
it was decreed we should not meet with 
them. Gilt lions, red stags, white horses, 
and blue bulls ; apples and orange trees, as 
a herald would say, " proper;" crowns and 
coronets, and heads every way worthy of 
them ; suns, moons, and stars, " yea, the 
great globe itself," swung to and fro in the 
morning breeze, in every direction, and in 
endless variety; but in vain, from spot to 
spot, " with courteous action, they waved 
us to a more removed ground." The exte- 



70 BAVARIA. 

riors of these caravanserais alone were pro- 
mising. If " houses of entertainment r they 
were, that quality seemed entirely restricted 
to the outside. Their newly white-washed 
walls, and neatly painted green doors and 
shutters, surmounted by one of the glitter- 
ing ensigns aforesaid, but served to make 
the dark gulf of the long, low-roofed, 
rambling, unfurnished, smoky speise-saal, 
appear more dreary, dirty, and uncomfort- 
able; and it was some time before even 
hunger, that least ceremonious of all sen- 
sations, could induce us to make the plunge. 
Having at last screwed up our courage to 
the sticking-place, we rushed into — the 
Moon, I believe ; made the hostess stare, by 
drinking four or five "portions" of coffee, 
which turned out better than we expected, 
and ate a most respectable quantum of to- 
lerable " butter brod" and half a dozen 
eggs; for the whole of which we paid 
twenty kreutzers (about sixpence English) 
each, being then charged at least double 
what would have been demanded of their 
own countrymen. 

Vilshofen was the Villa Quintanica of the 
Romans, and is situated at the confluence 



VILSHOFEN. 71 

of the river Vils with the Danube. Rapoto, 
Count of Ortenburg, fortified it in the 
eleventh century ; and its history from that 
period is little more than an unbroken nar- 
rative of takings and retakings, plunder - 
ings and burnings, down to the end of the 
last war. Its principal trade is in beer; 
for a particular sort of which beverage it 
has been long celebrated : and its principal 
building is an ecclesiastical establishment, 
for which I cannot find an English name 
to my liking, that owes its foundation to the 
following circumstance :— Heinrich Tuschl, 
knight of Saldenau, upon ocular proof of 
his wife's infidelity, condemned the miser- 
able woman to be walled up alive, abjured 
the company, and shunned the sight of fe- 
males, and left the greater part of his pro- 
perty in 1376 to found this establishment. 
Upon the charter was written : 

"2?§untf attain 33am; 
M) Cusrfjl Utib allatn." 

" Two dogs to one bone ; 
I Tuschl bide alone. 5 ' * 

* The canons or prebends of this establishment have the 
word " allain," (" alone,") inscribed upon their arms, their 
clothes, and their houses. Schultes tells us that a wag La- 
tinised it " Solus cum sola." 



72 BAVARIA. 

Having re-embarked and passed under the 
wooden bridge, on the centre of which is a 
crucifix, we passed by Hacheldorf, which 
forms a kind of suburb to Vilshofen, and the 
market town of Windorf, famous for boat- 
building. Near Hansbach the little Wol- 
fach falls into the Danube ; and below this 
spot the river boils over numberless sunken 
rocks, many of which show their white 
heads above the water, studding the stream 
in all directions. Shortly afterwards the 
river narrows, and a slight fall, or what our 
sailors call a race, ensues. The watermen, 
who magnify the little difficulties of this 
navigation into the most astounding dan- 
gers, call this " das gefurchtete Sand- 
bach !" The cottages on the banks now 
assumed a Swiss appearance, being all of 
wood, with galleries across their gables, 
and far-projecting roofs. A slight change 
was also perceivable in the costume of the 
women; the little black silk cap, with its long 
ribbon streamers, had given place to a dark- 
coloured cotton handkerchief, bound closely 
round the head, and tied in a knot behind, 
the ends hanging down. The impetus given 
to the current by the little fall now carried 



LOUIS I. KING OF BAVARIA. 73 

us merrily along, to the great delight of 
our lazy boatmen, who made it a point of 
conscience not to wag a finger when they 
could possibly avoid it, past Gaishofen, 
where a small stream called the Gaisach 
joins the Danube, and Heining on the right 
bank, and Dobelstein (formerly called En- 
gelberg) on the left. For a new road cut 
through the rocks on the very brink of the 
river, by which nearly six English miles are 
saved in posting to Passau, Bavaria and 
its visiters are indebted to Maximilian- 
Joseph, the father of the present monarch, 
Louis I. who, treading in the footsteps of 
his excellent sire, inherits not only his crown 
but the affection of his people ; and by his 
unbounded kindness and liberality to the 
professors of the fine arts, has obtained 
throughout the continent the honourable 
addition to his style, of " the King of the 
Learned/ 5 In the tour, of which this descent 
of the Danube formed a part, I travelled 
nearly all over Bavaria, and had the gratifi- 
cation of hearing the praises of its king from 
all lips and in all places ; not the mere 
mouth-homage which betrays itself by the 
cold precision of the language in which it is 



74 BAVARIA. 

couched, but the ebullition of feeling rush- 
ing pure from the heart, and leaping the 
barriers of ceremony in its honest ardour. 
" Our king is a good fellow/' is the homely 
but expressive phrase in which his character 
is invariably summed up by all who speak 
of him. Shortly after he came to the 
throne, he disbanded an expensive body- 
guard, and on being questioned as to the 
policy of the act, he replied, " We are at 
peace; why should I burden my people 
with an unnecessary expense ? as for my- 
self, I want no regiment to protect me, my 
fellow-citizens are my body-guard." In a 
very handsome new street erecting in 
Munich by his order, there is an unseemly 
gap occasioned by an antique isolated house 
standing edgeways in the centre of the 
modern buildings. On expressing our sur- 
prise that it was allowed to remain there, 
we were told that it belonged to an old 
general, who had resisted every proposal for 
its demolition, and it having been suggested 
to the king to compel him, his answer was, 
" No, no, let him have his way ; he is an 
old man, and has perchance but a few years 
to live ; I will not abridge their number by 



LOUIS I. KING OF BAVARIA. 75 

annoying him." His majesty frequently 
takes a country walk alone, or with but one 
attendant, and, dressed like a farmer, chats 
freely and jocularly with the peasantry ; 
never leaving them, however, without some 
mark of his bounty. 

I cannot be expected to vouch for the truth 
of these anecdotes as far as regards their 
details or the exact expressions used, but 
they are amongst the many in general cir- 
culation ; and an excellent modern tourist 
has justly remarked, that *« an anecdote in 
general circulation, even though not strictly 
true in point of fact, will commonly be ac- 
cordant to the character of the person of 
whom it is related, and will thus be a cor- 
rect, though perhaps a fictitious illustration 
of his mode of acting." The person of 
Louis is worthy his noble character ; intel- 
ligence and spirit are visible in every line 
of his countenance ; a high forehead, large 
and deeply-set dark eyes, to which a pro- 
fusion of black hair, pushed carelessly off 
the temples, and dark upturned mustachios, 
would give something like an expression of 
fierceness, were it not for the benignant 
smile which plays about his mouth when 



76 BAVARIA, 

addressing you. His queen, too, is renowned 
for her beauty and affability ; and, in short, 
a more handsome and deservedly popular 
pair never graced a continental throne. 

But to return to the Danube, from whence 
I have wandered to pay my humble tribute 
of praise to one of the best of monarchs. 
By the side of the new road before men- 
tioned is the statue of a lion-couchant upon 
a pedestal, and placed upon a jutting rock, 
with an inscription beneath it stating the 
chaussee to have been made by command 
of Maximilian- Joseph I., King of Bavaria. 
In a few minutes after you have passed this 
monument, the towers of the church of Ma- 
ria-hilf appear above the hills, and shortly 
afterwards the cathedral of Passau, and 
the old fort of Oberhaus on the opposite 
height, are seen rising over the foliage of 
an island in the centre of the river. The 
approach to the city between the island and 
the left bank is most beautiful ; and who- 
ever is acquainted with the scenery of the 
Rhine will immediately acknowledge, that 
it has not improperly obtained the appella- 
tion of " the Coblentz of the Danube," 



CHAPTER III. 

Passau— The Inn-stadt— The Fair— The Cathedral— The 
Bridge — Fortress of Oberhaus — Celebrated View — Maria- 
hilf— The Ilz-stadt— The Sword Cutlery— Present Manu- 
factures and Commerce of Passau — Talismans — Goitres — 
Excursions into the Environs of Passau — Confluence of the 
Inn and the Danube — Krempenstein — Hafner Zell — Its 
Manufactories — Fichtenstein — The Jochenstein — The 
Ruin of Ried. 

A spot where three rivers meet, amidst a 
quadruple chain of mountains, rising four 
hundred feet above the level of the water, 
was not likely to escape the notice of the 
ancient lords of the world, and consequently 
the Romans built, upon the promontory 
between the Inn and the Danube, their 
" Castra Batava/' The Inn-stadt, on the 
right bank of the Inn, and which is con- 
nected with Passau by a bridge across 
that river, was the Roman Bojodurum. In 
St. Severins time it was called Boitro. 
The saint saved the city from the wrath of 
Gibuld, King of Swabia, but it was de- 
stroyed by Chunimund, the successor of 



78 BAVARIA. 

Gibuld, while Severin was at his kloster 
near Vienna, A.D. 475. Bibilo, Bishop of 
Lorch, flying from the destroying Avars, 
was received with open arms by Uttilo II., 
who built for him here, at the eastern end 
of the city, the Nonnen-kloster of Nidern- 
burg, A.D. 739. About one hundred and 
fifty years later, the successors of this 
bishop modestly laid claim to the whole 
city ; and kept it in defiance of king and 
kaiser, till the year 1802, shortly after 
which period it was secularized and given 
to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The 
bishopric of Passau, under its ecclesiastical 
princes, included (besides the city of Pas- 
sau, the Inn-stadt, and the Ilz-stadt,) the 
castles of Marsbach and Rana-riedl, the 
market-towns of Ebersberg and Ips, the 
towns of Mautern, Amstetten, Greifenstein, 
Stockerau, St. Andre, and many other 
places in Austria, nearly the whole of the 
present bishopric of Linz, and a large por- 
tion of Bohemia. One of these sovereign 
prelates, of the family of Hohenloe, ran 
the bishopric, notwithstanding its immense 
revenues, into considerable debt, while, 



PASSAU. 79 

with great affectation of piety and contempt 
for the pomps and vanities of this life, he 
caused to be inscribed on the walls of his 
palace, " O Welt ! bose Welt ! " (" O 
world! O wicked world !") upon which a 
waggish dean wrote under, as in continua- 
tion of the sentence, " Wie libel verzehrst 
Du des Hochstifts Geld !" (" How ill dost 
thou consume the chapter's gold !") At 
the same time let us not forget that we 
are, perhaps, indebted to a Bishop of Pas- 
sau for the preservation of that most in- 
teresting, as well as most ancient, speci- 
men of Teutonic romance, the Nibelungen 
Lied. Pelegrin, or Pilgerin, Bishop of 
Passau, who died in 991, collected the then 
current legends of the Nibelungen, which 
he committed to writing in the favourite 
Latin tongue, with the assistance of his 
scribe Conrad, whose name has occasioned 
the Swabian poem to be sometimes as- 
cribed to Conrad of Wurtzburg, who lived 
long after.* On the 2d of August, 1552, 
was signed here the celebrated treaty, or 

* Vide * Lays of the Minnesingers, or German Trouba- 
dours.' 12mo. Lond. 1825, p. 113, and the Appendix to the 
* Nibelungen-lied', called "Die Klage," i. e. the Lament. 



80 BAVARIA. 

pacification of Passau, by the Archduke 
Ferdinand of Austria, as representative of 
his brother, the Emperor Charles V., and 
Maurice of Saxony, in the name of the 
Protestant party. 

In 1610, the Emperor Rudolph raised a 
body of troops in the diocese of Passau, 
which, on his reconciliation the same year 
with his brother Matthias, he affected to 
disband, at the same time purposely with- 
holding their pay, in order to afford them 
a pretext for invading Bohemia. The 
troops accordingly, under the command of 
their leader Ramee, burst into Upper 
Austria, spreading themselves over the 
country beyond the Danube, and after com- 
mitting every species of devastation, passed 
into Bohemia, where they were at last 
defeated near Prague, after they had ex- 
torted three hundred thousand florins from 
the Emperor *. 

On entering the city we found it was 
fair time, and the square before the cathe- 

* Coxe's ' History of the House of Austria,' vol. ii. pp. 419, 
20. I have mentioned these circumstances, as the devasta- 
tions committed by these troops, who are called by. the Ger- 
man writers the Passauer Volk, are still but too visible upon 
the banks of the Danube, and will be alluded to hereafter. 



PASSAU. 81 

dral was filled with booths, and gay with 
peasantry in their holiday dresses. Prints 
and pipe-heads, cotton handkerchiefs of 
the most staring colours, and the splendid 
gold and silver caps worn by the women of 
the neighbourhood, amongst which we saw, 
for the first time, the magnificent and taste- 
ful Linzer Haube, were the principal articles 
for sale ; but it did not appear to us that 
there were many purchasers. The cathedral 
has nothing to boast of in the way of ar- 
chitecture or painting. The present build- 
ing dates from the year 1662, the for- 
mer edifice having been destroyed by fire. 
Not having much time to spare, we hast- 
ened across the bridge over the Danube 
into the Ilz-stadt, on the left bank, and 
ascended the winding staircase cut in the 
rock, to the fortress of Oberhaus, the 
Ehrenbreitstein of Passau. It was a broil- 
ing business, under a vertical sun, but we 
were told the view from the summit would 
amply repay us for any fatigue we might 
endure in the ascent ; and breathless with 
expectation, as well as exertion, we stood 
at length upon the brow of the mountain. 
But little was to be seen from that spot, 



82 BAVARIA. 

except the tops of the towers, and the 
houses of Passau, and we walked on 
through ploughed fields, a curious sight in 
such a situation, to the fortress, from the 
walls of which we expected to realize our 
excited hopes. But though permitted to 
enter the building, sentinels at each angle 
checked every attempt to gain a command- 
ing situation, with their eternal " es ist ver- 
boden ;" and hot, weary, and disappointed, 
we prepared to " march down again, 5 ' when 
a fortunate chance led us to the wished-for 
spot. Whether it was not the right one, 
or that our previous annoyances had ren- 
dered us captious and discontented, I can- 
not pretend to say, but certainly the view, 
though extraordinary enough in character, 
fell woefully short of our expectations in 
point of extent and beauty. The Inn is 
seen writhing through its mountain gorge, 
to join the Danube, which at this point it 
much exceeds in width, and the church of 
Maria-hilf, on its bluff rock above the Inn- 
stadt, forms a fine object in the fore-ground. 
But the hills are too lofty, notwithstanding 
the elevation on which one is placed, to 
permit the eye to follow the windings of 



PASSAU. 83 

the two rivers to any distance, and the 
view from the water, at the point of their 
confluence, is, in my opinion, far preferable. 
The old fort of Oberhaus was built in 
1219, by Bishop Ulrich, to keep the citizens 
ofPassauin awe*. Maria-hilf was once, 
and I believe is still, a celebrated place of 
pilgrimage ; and here is the miraculous 
image of the Virgin, up to which the pil- 
grims used to crawl upon their knees. The 
infant Jesus is clasped to one breast, and 
from the other, water flows out of a little 
silver pipe, into the mouth of the pious 
votary. The image of the Virgin in the 
church of Maria-hilf at Vienna, was made 
from this model ; but the Viennese have 
had the good taste to dispense with the 
water-pipe. In 1781, a vessel, with two 
hundred pilgrims, was wrecked on the Inn, 
and one hundred and fifty unfortunate be- 
ings perished. 

Descending into the Ilz-stadt, (the suburb 
of Passau, on the left bank, so called from 
the Ilz, that rolls its dark waves into the 

* The Austrian commander Plantini was beheaded at 
Ingolstadt, in 1743, for delivering this fortress up to the 
Bavarians, without firing a shot, 

G 2 



84 



BAVARIA. 



Danube, beneath the fortress of Ober- 
haus,) we hailed a little market-boat that 
was just leaving the shore, and were 
speedily ferried over by a stout wench to 
the eastern end of Passau, where our bark 
lay moored while the passports of our- 
selves and crew were undergoing the re- 
gular inspection, &c. Notwithstanding it 
was fair time, there was little bustle either 
on the banks or in the town. Commerce, 
which once flourished so greatly at Passau, 
has of late years, from various circum- 
stances, sadly declined. Its sword-cutlery, 
celebrated as early as the thirteenth cen- 
tury for the famous Wolfs-klingen (i. e. 
Wolf-blades,) was destroyed by religious 
persecutions, about the close of the six- 
teenth, when nearly all the workmen, two 
hundred of whom lived in the Inn-stadt 
alone, sought refuge in Austria. At the 
beginning of the seventeenth century a ma- 
nufactory of striped paper was established, 
which supplied, in some degree, the loss of 
the sword- cutlery ; and Passau is still the 
stapel-platz, or principal depot for the 
salt of Bavaria, which is brought down 
the Salza and the Inn, from the works 



PASSAU. 85 

at Hallein ; but the benefit which now 
accrues to the inhabitants from this privi- 
lege is little or nothing, compared with 
what the salt trade produced to them in 
the middle ages, when they carried it on, 
on their own accounts. During the thirty 
years' war, talismans were sold here, which 
the venders professed would render the 
wearers invulnerable. A safer speculation 
could scarcely have been imagined, as, 
until they had tried them, no one had a 
right to complain of imposition, and those 
who did try them and found them ineffec- 
tual, generally made the discovery too late 
to expose or punish the impostor. The 
people of Passau and its neighbourhood 
might be considered particularly good- 
looking, were it not for the hideous goitre, 
which is exceedingly common in this part 
of Germany. The appearance of this ex- 
crescence is most disgusting to the eye of 
the unaccustomed traveller, but the natives 
take no measures to prevent or to conceal 
it: and, indeed, both here, as in some 
parts of Switzerland, it is considered by 
many a beauty, instead of a deformity. 
Schultes recommends, to those who have 



86 BAVARIA. 

the time tomake them, excursions to Form- 
bach, Wernstein, and several other places in 
the environs of Passau, and a ramble up the 
wild valley of the Ilz, to the ruins of the 
old castle of Halz, the seat of an ancient 
family, that, rising into fame through the 
deeds of Albert the Valiant, in the time 
of Rudolph of Hapsburg, became extinct 
with the death of Count Luitprand, in 
1375. We, however, had too long a jour- 
ney in perspective to venture on including 
ourselves in that number, so late in the 
season, and with particular objects in view ; 
and as our steersman made his appear- 
ance a few moments after we returned to 
the boat with our papers w en regie," 
we were soon in the middle of the stream 
again, and rapidly bidding adieu to the 
Coblentz of the Danube. 

The view down the two rivers, (the Inn 
and the Danube,) from the point of their 
confluence, is, as I have already mentioned, 
in my opinion, far more beautiful though 
not so extraordinary as that obtained from 
the heights above them. Standing in the 
stern of the boat, and looking back on the 
too rapidly disappearing scene, on our 



PASSAU. 87 

right arose the long walls and round towers 
of Qberhaus, upon a range of precipices 
richly hung with wood, and full four hun- 
dred fathoms high ; on our left stood the 
Maria-Hilf-berg, crowned with its church, 
and the houses of the Inn-stadt pictu- 
resquely grouped at its foot, — in the cen- 
tre, the town of Passau, forming a salient 
angle upon a plane of water, nearly two 
thousand feet in w T idth, and standing like 
an island between two of the noblest rivers 
in Germany. The time allowed us to con- 
template this lovely scene, was as brief as 
the enjoyment was exquisite. The Da- 
nube, reinforced by the waves of the Inn 
and the Ilz, rushes, with redoubled speed 
round a rocky cape, and presto ! your boat 
is gliding between banks so savage and 
solitary, that you can scarcely believe some 
necromantic spell has not transported you, 
in the twinkling of an eye, thousands of 
miles from that " peopled city," the hum 
of which still lingers in your ear. In its 
eccentric course, the river now forms itself, 
as it were, into a chain of beautiful lakes, 
each apparently shut in on all sides by 
precipitous hills, clothed with black firs that 



88 BAVARIA. 

grow down to the very water's edge, while 
from amongst them peeps out, here and 
there, one of the little Swiss-looking cot- 
tages I have before mentioned, with perhaps 
a rustic bridge thrown across a small cleft 
or chasm, through which a mountain rivulet 
falls like a silver thread into the flood be- 
low. On doubling one of the abrupt points 
which produce this lake-like appearance, 
we came suddenly upon the chateau of 
Krempenstein, or Grampelstein, perched 
on a mass of rock, jutting out from a fir- 
clad precipice, that rises majestically be- 
hind it. It belonged, for nearly four hun- 
dred years, to the bishops of Passau, who, 
in conformity with the general practice 
of the time, levied contributions upon 
the passing vessels, translating the awk- 
ward term of robbery into the more legal 
epithet of toll. The peasantry and schif- 
fers in the neighbourhood call it the 
Schneider-Schlossel, and tell a story of 
some poor tailor who, in flinging a dead 
goat into the river from the walls of the 
building, fell over with it and was drowned, 
a circumstance which they think exceed- 
ingly comical. The age of the building, 



HAFNER-ZELL, 89 

and the terrific beauty of its situation, 
deserve a more interesting tradition. On 
turning another sharp corner, — forgive, 
gentle reader, the unnautical expression, for 
I know of none other that will so well de- 
scribe the acute angles that present them- 
selves at almost every thousand yards 
upon this extraordinary river, — you per- 
ceive Biirnwang, or Birchenwang, with its 
mill ; and in the distance, on the left bank, 
the small market-town of Hafner or Ober- 
zell. Little would a traveller imagine, on 
looking at this unpretending town, that its 
manufactures have been, from time im- 
memorial, eagerly sought throughout the 
civilized world — that, from the banks of 
the Ganges to the Gulf of Mexico, from St. 
Petersburg to Peru, there are no articles 
of commerce more generally circulated and 
esteemed, than those which are fabricated 
in this sequestered nook by the hands of 
a few German potters. The famous cru- 
cibles, known by the name of Ipser or Pas- 
sauer-Tiegel, are all made at Hafner-zell. 
About three hundred persons are constantly 
employed in this manufacture ; but as the 
towns of Passau and Ips are of greater 



90 BAVARIA. 

consequence in the map, their names have 
been connected with the ware ; and the 
goldsmith and chemist, while reaping the 
benefit of its industry, are ignorant pro- 
bably of the existence of such a place as 
Hafner-zell. There are also here manu- 
factories of black-lead pencils, and a par- 
ticular sort of black earthenware, the ma- 
terials for both of which are found in the 
neighbourhood, which is rich in mineral 
and other productions, worthy the atten- 
tion of the geologist and natural historian. 
Not far from Hafner-zell, on the right 
bank, stands the chateau of Fichtenstein, 
on the summit of a stupendous hill, clothed, 
like the rest of its giant brethren, with 
forests of pine and fir. A modern mansion 
is near it ; and at the foot of the hill are a 
few poor cottages, with a little church, the 
spire of which is just visible above the 
trees. Fichtenstein belonged anciently to 
the Counts of Wasserburg, another race of 
knightly plunderers. Conrad, Count of 
Wasserburg and Fichtenstein, on quitting 
Germany for the Holy Land, pledged this 
stronghold to Ulric, Bishop of Passau, in 
1218, who advanced a considerable sum of 



FICHTENSTEIN. 91 

money on the extra condition that the 
castle should be forfeited entirely if the 
Count did not return from Palestine. Con- 
rad, however, did return, and, dying soon 
afterwards, left his castle to his lady. 
Bishop Gebhard, the successor of Ulric, 
immediately set up some claim to the pro- 
perty, and declared war against the coun- 
tess. He was defeated, however, and taken 
prisoner by a gallant knight, upon which 
he proceeded to excommunicate the whole 
party. The spiritual weapon had consi- 
derably more effect than the temporal, and 
the unfortunate countess was obliged to 
surrender her castle to the bishopric of 
Passau, A. D. 1226*. Further on, a rock 

* Mr. Russel, in his tour in Germany, speaking of the 
number of abbeys, monasteries, &c, has taken up the cause 
of these holy locusts, and contends, with all that ingenuity and 
talent which characterize his excellent work, that it is wrong 
to accuse the princes, or pious individuals who endowed them 
of having been imprudently liberal to the church. "Thou- 
sands of acres were given, but they were acres of wood and 
water, utterly unproductive to the public, and which would 
probably have remained for centuries in the same wild state, 
if they had been the property of a quarrelsome baron, instead 
of belonging to the peaceful sons of the church. The monks 
though idle themselves, were not encouragers of idleness in 
their subjects. Their leisure allowed them to instruct, and 
their love of gain led them to aid, their vassals in agricultural 
science, rude as it was, while, at the same time, the sacred 



92 BAVARIA, 

rises out of the middle of the river, and 
upon it stands a small building like a 

character which they enjoyed, placed their peasantry be- 
yond the reach of the oppressions practised by feudal nobles. 
It has long been a current proverb in Germany, ' Man lebt 
gut unter dem Krummstab .' It is true that one is apt to 
feel provoked when he is told that these fruitful valhes and 
the pasture hills which rise along- their sides, belong to a con- 
gregation of idle monks. But monks were the very men who 
made the vallies fruitful, and the hills useful. They received 
them covered with trees, and rocks — no very liberal boon 6 , 
and it was they who planted them with corn and stored them 
with sheep." This is all very true, as far as regards the benefits 
which mankind has eventually received from these establish- 
ments ; for we have likewise to thank the cowl and crosier, for 
much if not all the valuable information respecting the days 
of our fathers and " the old time before them,'* which the 
chronicles, written and illuminated in abbey and convent, 
contain. But let the praise be given to that Providence, 
" from seeming evil still producing good," in whose hands 
these monks were the unconscious instruments of spreading 
that very light and information which it was their constant 
study and employment to extinguish and contract. The 
hypocrisy and cupidity of these self-elected saints are far less 
pardonable than the brutal ferocity of the barons, whose 
pitiable ignorance and superstition, the roots of the evil, they 
fostered for their own advantage. Instead of employing the 

a " One lived well under the crosier." 

h No very liberal boon, Mr. Russel ! What ! In a country 
where wood is to this day the staple commodity ? where the 
greater part of the revenue of many of the nobles, and the 
entire incomes of thousands of the peasantry, are derived from 
the sale of the trees with which nature has so lavishly clothed 
the land ? from the produce of those very " acres of wood," 
which you, from some strange slip of memory, describe as 
" utterly unproductive to the public." The " peaceful sons 
of the church" amongst whom, of course, you number the 
warlike bishops of Passau, Strasburgh, Bamberg, Freysingen, 
Ratisbon, et hoc genus omne, knew uncommonly well the 
value of those unproductive acres. 



THE JOCHENSTEIN, 93 

sentry-box. It is called the Jochenstein ; 
and, from the arms of the town of Passau 

influence which their superior education and sacred character 
gave them over the minds of these uncultivated men, in the 
truly Christian task of curbing their passions, enlightening 
their understandings, and bringing them to a sense of the 
folly and wickedness of their ways, they meanly exerted it 
for the purposes of self-aggrandizement, utterly careless of the 
pitiable state of destitution and degradation in which, by 
their rapacious demands and disgusting mummeries, they 
were daily sinking their poor, besotted, bigoted, but often truly 
noble benefactors. The knave who swindles a silly heir out 
of his property may wonderfully improve the estate and 
build an hospital with the money ; but he is no less a knave 
because the poor and the sick are eventually gainers ; nor is 
the folly of the unfortunate dupe an excuse, in the eye of honour 
and honesty, for his crime ; which is, on the contrary, aggra- 
vated by the advantage taken of the victim's imbecility. Avarice 
and ambition, however, sowed the seeds of their own destruc- 
tion. The Church of Rome might have flourished to this day, 
had not its grasping hand pressed so heavily upon its subjects, 
as at length to rouse them from their trance and open their 
eyes, not so much to its errors as to its wealth. Truly does 
Schiller remark, that " Had it not been closely backed with 
private advantages, and state interests, the arguments of theo- 
logiaus, and the voice of the people, would never have met 
with princes so willing to espouse their cause, nor the new 
doctrines have found so numerous, so brave, and so obstinate 
champions !". ..." The desire of independence, the rich plun- 
der of monastic institutions, gave charms to the Reformation 
in the eyes of princes, and strengthened not a little their in- 
ward conviction of its necessity". ..." Without the imposi- 
tion of the tenth and twentieth pennies, the See of Rome had 
never lost the United Netherlands." The question, " Why 
the Pope, who is richer than several Croesus's, cannot 
build the Church of Saint Peter with his own money, but does 
it at the expense of the poor?" was more staggering than 
that of his infallibility. The sale of indulgences first induced 



94 BAVARIA. 

and those of the empire being cut on the 
sides of it, is generally considered by the 
Schiffers, the Granze, or boundary stone 
between Bavaria and Austria. Schultes, 
however, denies this, and tells us, that 
the real Granze is the old tower of Ried, 
upon a rock facing EngelhardVzell. Be 
this as it may, we considered ourselves, 
upon the faith of our steersman, entering 
the Austrian dominions as we passed 

men to inquire into the power of the Church to grant them. 
The heavy coffers of the abbots, and the glittering ornaments 
of their shrines and altars drew the swords of such adven- 
turers as Christian, Duke of Brunswick, who issued a coinage 
composed of church-plate, and bearing the motto — " A friend 
to God and an enemy to the priesthood." " Woe unto 
them,'* says the inspired Isaiah, " that join house to house, 
that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be 
placed alone in the midst of the earth. 

" Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the 
righteousness of the righteous from him. 

" Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his 
people, and he stretched forth his hand against them, and hath 
smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were 
torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not 
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still" 

Such were the crimes of the Church of Rome ; such has 
been its punishment, and " His anger," indeed, " is not turned 
away" — " His hand is stretched out still." Who can look 
upon its fallen state, and listen to the cry of its unfortunate 
remnant, without exclaiming in the words of Jeremiah, " How 
is she become as a widow ; she that was great among the 
nations, and princess among the provinces ! How is she 
become tributary !" 



THE JOCHENSTEIN. 95 

the rock; and, accordingly, drank three 
bumpers of excellent Stein-wine to their 
imperial and royal majesties of Austria, 
Bavaria, and England, with the sincere 
wish that no mistaken policy might disturb 
the friendship so happily existing between 
the three nations, or the general peace and 
prosperity of Europe. We soon came in 
sight of Engelhard' s-zell, where the Aus- 
trian custom-house is established ; and op- 
posite to which rises the old tower already 
mentioned, upon the end of a long fir-clad 
hill. Nothing is known of the ancient 
history of this little ruin ; which, accord- 
ing to the peasantry of the neighbourhood, 
was reduced to its present state by the 
Swedes. The whole district from Mars- 
bach to this spot is called the Rieder- 
mark, and is supposed to have been, in the 
ninth century, the seat of the Rheadarii. 



96 



AUSTRIA. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Engelhard' s-zell — Rana-riedl — Marsbach — Wesen Urfar — 
Waldkirche — Hayenbach — The Schlagen — The Rhine and 
the Danube contrasted — Ober Michl — Neuhaus — Aschach 
— The paper-money of Austria — Castle of Schaumberg — 
Environs of Aschach — Ober Walsee — Story of Hans von 
Eschelberg — Sketch of the Insurrections in the seventeenth 
Century. 

No sooner had our boat touched the land, 
beside the little white-washed custom- 
house at Englehard's-zell, than it was sur- 
rounded by a swarm of officials, one of 
whom, in the uniform of the Austrian 
police, which is, I believe, the same as 
that of the customs, viz. grey with green 
facings, &c, desired us to land; and, at 
the same time, we were hailed from the 
shore by a gentlemanlike personage, in 
plain clothes and a foraging cap, with 
"Messieurs, parlez-vous Franeais?" On 
our answer in the affirmative, he requested 
us to follow him into his bureau. Having 
inspected our passports, he asked us if 
we had anything to declare : I replied, not 



ENGELHARDSZELL. 97 

to our knowledge. Had we any snuff or 
tobacco ? Neither of us smoked or took 
snuff. Had we any almanacks, or sealed 
letters ? No. Had we any wine, or beer ? 
■" Monsieur, nous avons fini tout ca en 
buvant a la sante de sa Majeste l'Em~ 
pereur." (Off went his cap ; the Austrians 
never mention, or hear mentioned the title 
of their sovereign without uncovering.) 
Bread, butter, &c. ? We had finished that 
too, and would be obliged to him if he 
would inform us where we could get some 
more. The catechism ended, he returned 
us our passports properly countersigned, 
and we concluded that we should be spared 
the trouble of unpacking. But, upon re- 
turning to the bank, we found our port- 
manteaus and sacs-denuit, with the bun- 
dles and knapsacks of our crew, spread 
out in awful array along a bench, in 
front of the Wirths-haus or inn, facing 
the landing-place. Our friend soon reap- 
peared, and the portmanteaus, &c. being 
opened, he inspected their contents very 
closely ; but with none of the rudeness 
which generally characterizes persons in 
his situation. He looked very suspiciously 

H 



98 AUSTRIA. 

at our little travelling library, and ex- 
amined the title-page of nearly every 
book ; my papers and drawings were also 
glanced at, but no questions were asked. 
He seemed amazingly pleased with our 
English dressing-cases, upon the razors 
in which, particularly, he looked with a 
covetous eye. "Ah! messieurs, vous avezla 
des jolies choses ! " and, courteously bow- 
ing, he wished us a pleasant journey, and 
retired. 

Having replenished our basket of provi- 
sions, and re-embarked our baggage, we 
bade adieu to Engelhardszell. Its environs 
are very beautiful, and there was formerly 
here a Cistertian monastery, to which its 
inhabitants gave the name of Angelorum 
Cella, from whence probably its present ap- 
pellation. This monastery was founded 
A.D. 1293, by the wealthy and powerful 
House of Schaumberg. In 1571? the whole 
community died of the plague, and the 
building remained uninhabited nearly one 
hundred years. Shortly after its re-esta- 
blishment, it suffered from a fire that broke 
out in the kitchen, and was rebuilt at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. The 



RANA-RIEDL. 99 

old Pfarr-kirche, or parish church, was 
built as early as 1230. In 1551, another 
church was erected for the same purpose, 
apparently, as that to which the Maltheser- 
kirche was formerly applied in Ratisbon. 
The horses were here brought annually to 
the door of the church, and allowed a peep 
at Saint Pancras, whose effigy graced the 
altar. This sight, and a few oats at the 
same time administered, were supposed 
to preserve them from all disorders for a 
twelvemonth. Napoleon gave Engelhards- 
zell to the Prince of Wrede, who still pos- 
sesses the domain, and hunts here occa- 
sionally, In 1626, the revolted peasantry 
cast chains and ropes across the Danube 
here, to prevent the Bavarians from assist- 
ing Herberstorf at Linz. In 1703, the Ba- 
varians built here a small flotilla, with 
floating batteries, and threw a bridge of 
boats across the river to facilitate their 
communication with Bohemia. 

On the left bank, before we had entirely 
lost sight of Engelhardszell, the chateau 
of Rana-riedl appeared in the distance, on 
the ridge of a lofty mountain, its white and 
peaked turrets beautifully backed by the 

H 2 



Qfr 



100 



AUSTRIA. 



deep blue sky. Beside the hill is a ravine, 
through which the Rana-bach brawls into 
the Danube, turning a mill, and bringing 
down firewood from the mountain forests of 
Bohemia. The name of this chateau first 
appears in some deeds of the fourteenth 
century, towards the close of which it be- 
longed to a lady of the Rana family, who 
married a knight, named Stephen von 
Schweinbach. Shortly afterwards, it be- 
came the property of the grasping Bishops 
of Passau. Gbllinger, Governor of Schar- 
ding, besieged it in 1486, in the name of 
the Duke of Bavaria, but was compelled to 
raise the siege by Hans Oberhaimer, the 
lord of the neighbouring Castle of Falken- 
stein, who reinforced the garrison. Two 
years afterwards, he returned and assaulted 
it with success. It was recovered by the 
Bishopric in 1490, and lost to it entirely in 
1501, when it was taken by the Emperor 
Maximilian I., and pledged by him to 
Henry von Preuschenk. Rudolph II. gave 
it to the Lords of Salburg in 1591 ; at the 
extinction of which family, it became the 
property of the Counts of Clam, A. D. 
1728. The villages of Ober-Rana and Nie- 



RANA-RIEDL. 101 

der-Rana lie one on each side of the Danube, 
a little below this spot ; and the river then 
making a sudden bend to the north, you 
come in sight of the Castle of Marsbach, 
similarly situated to Rana-riedl. Otto of 
Marsbach, in 1268, dispossessed, by force 
of arms, his father Ortulph, of this castle, 
and declared war against the Bishop of 
Passau. Ortulph bought it from his unna- 
tural son, at the heavy price of four hun- 
dred talents, which so reduced his finances 
that he was compelled to give up the castle 
after all to Passau, in order to relieve him- 
self from his difficulties. In 1486, it came 
into the hands of the Lords of Oberhaimer, 
who carried on a desperate system of 
plunder against all unfortunate travellers, 
whether by land or by water. One of these 
Oberhaimers attacked the boat of a coun- 
sellor of Steyer, Valentine Rottenburgher, 
and carried off booty to the amount of 
seven hundred florins, a considerable sum 
in those days. In 1610, the castle was 
surprised by the Passauer-volk under Ra- 
mee; and, in 1626, Spatt, the famous pea- 
sant chief, attacked it suddenly, and put 
the garrison to the sword. Opposite to 



102 AUSTRIA. 

Marsbach, on the right bank, is Wesen, or 
Wesen-Urfar, with its ferry. The family 
of Wesen became extinct in 1230, by the 
death of Erchinger von Wesen, who was 
captain-general of the province of Enns, 
and lies buried at Engelhardszell. There 
is a famous cellar here, hewn in the rock, 
by command of the chapter of the cathe- 
dral of Passau, in which, it is said, you can 
turn a coach and four. In 1626, Adolph, 
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, hastening with 
several thousand men to the relief of Her- 
berstorf, landed unfortunately near this 
celebrated cellar. The temptation, I sup- 
pose, was too great for poor human nature ; 
and the armed peasantry, descending from 
the hills before day-break, fell on the 
fuddled Swabians, as they lay " somno vi- 
noque sepulti," and slaughtered the greater 
part of them. The Duke himself narrowly 
escaped in his doublet, and with the loss of 
all his property. On the same bank, but 
on the ridge of the mountain, and half 
hidden by the dark firs that surround it, 
stands Waldkirche, with its crumbling ruins, 
which some call the Castle of Waldeck, and 
others the fortress of Wesen. The indefa- 



HAYENBACH. 103 

tigable Schultes has been able to gain no 
information respecting it, except that it was 
bought some time ago by a farmer from the 
Prince of Wrede, most likely with the view 
of demolishing it, and building new huts 
with the old materials. 

Nearly facing Waldkirche rises the ruin 
of Hayenbach, or Kirchbaum, as it is 
called by the schiffers, upon the ridge of 
the long, lofty, and nearly perpendicular 
mountain, which terminates the chain on 
this side the valley, and forms a promon- 
tory, round which the river, suddenly and 
rapidly wheeling, completely doubles itself, 
and enters a narrow defile, the romantic, 
and I may say awful, beauty of which sur- 
passes all description. So acute is the angle 
here made by the Danube, that the ruin 
of Hayenbach, though consisting of only 
one quadrangular and not very lofty tower, 
now presents its northern side to the eye 
in apparently the same situation that it did 
its southern side scarcely ten minutes be- 
fore. Enormous crags, piled one upon the 
other, to the height of from three to four 
hundred fathoms ; their weather-blanched 



104 AUSTRIA, 

pinnacles starting up amongst the black firs 
and tangled shrubs, that struggle to clothe 
each rugged pyramid from its base to its 
apex, form the entrance to this grand and 
gloomy gorge through which the mighty 
stream now boils and hurries, winding and 
writhing, till at length you become so 
utterly bewildered, that nothing but a 
compass can give you the slightest idea 
of the direction of its course. The 
Castle of Hayenbachj which seems to guard 
this extraordinary pass, belonged, in the 
fifteenth century, to the Oberhaimers, the 
Lords of Falkenstein and Marsbach, of 
whom I have already spoken, and who, no 
doubt, found it admirably situated for the 
prosecution of that predatory warfare in 
which they " lived, moved, and had their 
being. 5 ' Falkenstein, with which this 
Castle of Hayenbach, or Kirchbaum, is 
confounded, lies above Rana, and is not 
visible from the Danube, and the same 
vague tradition is attached to each ruin ; 
namely, that it was originally built by a 
knight of the thirteenth century, who, 
having slain his brother, passed the rest of 



HAYENBACH. 105 

his days with an only daughter in that 
castellated hermitage*. 

For upwards of an hour we glided through 
scenes increasing in sublimity, and calling 
forth exclamations of wonder and delight, 
till my companion and I mutually confessed 
that we had exhausted our stock of epi- 
thets, and stood gazing in far more expres- 
sive silence on the stupendous precipices 
which towered above us, almost to the 
exclusion of daylight, their jagged sides 

" Horrid with fern, and intricate with thorn ;" 

and on the rapid stream that, like Milton's 
Fiend, 

"... Through the palpable obscure toiled out 
His uncouth passage" . . 

plunged in the womb 

Of unoriginal night and chaos wild." 

The pencil of a Salvator Rosa could alone 
do justice to these wondrous scenes. 
The grandest views upon the Rhine sink 
into insignificance, when compared with 
the magnificent pictures which the Danube 
here presents us at every turn. The two 
rivers would have admirably illustrated 



* Vide Baron von Schmidtburg's * Tagebuche einer Do- 
nau-Reise.' 



106 AUSTRIA. 

Burke's < Essay on the Sublime and Beau- 
tiful.' Nature has contrasted them pre- 
cisely according to the rules he has laid 
down in the twenty-seventh section of his 
Third Part. " Sublime objects," says he, 
" are vast in their dimensions, beautiful 
ones comparatively small : beauty should 
be smooth and polished ; the great, rugged 
and negligent : beauty should shun the 
right line, yet deviate from it insensibly ; 
the great, in many cases, loves the right 
line, and, when it deviates, it often makes 
a strong deviation : beauty should not be 
obscure ; the great ought to be dark and 
gloomy : beauty should be light and de- 
licate ; the great ought to be solid, and 
even massive." The substitution of the 
words " Rhine" for " Beauty," and of 
" Danube' 9 for " great," is nearly all that 
is necessary to change his general compa- 
rison into individual portraits of these rival 
floods, if rivalry may be said to exist be- 
tween two opposite species of perfection. 

The ruins on the banks of the Rhine, 
thickly interspersed as they are with 
smiling villages, busy towns, and sunny 
vineyards, swarming with holiday tourists, 



THE RHINE AND DANUBE. 107 

and echoing to the whips of Prussian pos- 
tilions, and the rattle of Prussian schnel- 
wagens, are more like modern antiques 
erected on the confines of some gentleman's 
park, than the bona fide relics of that truly- 
iron age, "the days of the shield and the 
spear." From Mayence to Cologne there is 
scarcely one mile of uninterrupted wild 
scenery ; and even if there were, the charm 
would be broken by some pert galley, with 
its white awning and gaudy flag, some 
lumbering Dutch beurtschifF, or, worse than 
all, the monstrous anachronism of a steam- 
boat, splashing, sputtering, and fuming 
along at the rate of twelve miles an hour. 
The mouldering towers that totter upon the 
crags of the Danube, on the contrary, are 
surrounded by scenery rude as the times 
in which they were reared, and savage as 
the warriors who dwelt in them. Nothing 
seems changed but themselves. The soli- 
tary boat that now and then glides by 
them, is of the same fashion as that on 
which their marauding masters sallied 
down, perhaps, three hundred years ago. 
The humble cottages that here and there 
peep through the eternal firs, and the 



108 AUSTRIA. 

church that rears its dusky spire upon some 
neighbouring hill, are of the same age. The 
costume of the poor straggling fishermen 
and woodcutters around them is scarcely 
altered ; and, indeed, one cannot look upon 
their own walls, blackened by fire, and 
crumbling in the blast, as they mostly are, 
without conjuring up the form of their 
ancient lord newly returned from Palestine, 
and finding his mountain-fastness burnt 
and pillaged by some neighbouring knight 
or prelate, with whom he was at feud, and 
on whom he now stands meditating swift 
and bloody retribution. For hours and 
hours the traveller may wind through these 
rocky defiles without meeting one object to 
scare the spirit of romance, which rises 
here in all her gloomy grandeur before him. 
From Passau to Vienna there is but one 
city, Linz, where the glare of modern uni- 
forms, and the rumbling of modern vehicles, 
would dissipate the spell ; and, much 
as I admire convenient and expeditious 
travelling, I should almost weep to see a 
bustling post-road cut beside the lonely 
Schlagen * f or a steam-boat floundering 

* The remarkable gorge from Hayenbach to Neuhaus is 



NEUHAUS. 109 

and smoking through the Strudel and the 
Wirpel*. 

At the mouth of a small opening on the 
left bank, through which the Kleine-Michl 
ripples into the Danube, stands Ober-Michl, 
the only village of any consequence in this 
wilderness. In 1809, the Bohemian land- 
wehr, under Colonel Hartman, took many 
of the French boats laden with provisions, 
near the spot. The Bavarian flotilla, un- 
der cover of the night and by dropping 
silently down the stream, escaped their 
notice. After passing two or three small 
groups of huts, another whirl of the river 
to the north-east brought us in front of the 
remarkable chateau of Neuhaus. Ranged 
along the brow of a perpendicular rock 
that seems to bar your further progress, 
stand three distinct buildings, (at least so 
they appear from the river,) giving you 
more the idea of a town than a castle. 
Far beneath them, but still at a consider- 
able height from the water, upon a ledge 

called by the peasantry of the district, " In den Schlagen," or 
Schlagleiten. 

* The Strudel and the Wirpel are a fall and whirlpool in 
the Danube, between Linz and Ips, of which hereafter. 



110 AUSTRIA. 

of the rock, is perched a quadrangular 
ruin, the Toll-tower, no doubt, where the 
retainers of the Counts of Schaumberg, to 
whom Neuhaus belonged in the fourteenth 
century, were stationed to exact the tribute 
from the trembling schifFers. 

In one of the many quarrels between 
the Counts of Schaumberg and the Duke 
of Austria, Neuhaus fell into the possession 
of the latter, but it was subsequently reco- 
vered, and many of the first nobles of 
Upper Austria were Castellans of Neuhaus 
for the House of Schaumberg. In 1510 it 
was annexed to the empire by Maximilian 
L, and pledged, in 1536, by Ferdinand I., 
for eight thousand silver pfennings, to the 
Baron of Springenstein, to whose heir it 
was afterwards presented as a free gift by 
Rudolph II. When the Turks, during the 
reign of the Emperor Charles V. burst into 
Hungary, and threatened Austria with 
invasion, Neuhaus was the asylum to 
which the women and children flew from 
all quarters. In the war between Rudolph 
II. and his brother Matthias, the troops 
raised by the former at Passau threw two 
chains across the Danube at this spot, one 



NEUHAUS. Ill 

of which was forged at Steyer, and the 
other brought from Vienna, weighing not 
less than nine hundred pounds, and secured 
them with eight anchors, and a guard of 
armed boats. During the insurrections in 
1626 also, the same measures were taken by 
the peasants, who ill treated the Countess 
of Springenstein, and made her a prisoner 
in her own castle. Neuhaus is at present, 
I believe, the property of the Prince of 
Thurm and Taxis. 

It is only on arriving at the very foot of 
the rocky wall, which forms an impene- 
trable barrier to the further progress of the 
Danube northward, that you perceive the 
outlet from this valley of precipices. A 
beautiful lake opens to the right near the 
point where the Grosse Michl disembogues 
itself from a woody ravine ; and the moun- 
tain chain gradually sinking on each side, 
the river widens and widens till the passen- 
ger would almost fancy it had completed 
its seaward course, and that he was enter- 
ing upon the broad and fathomless ocean. 
From the time we had entered the gorge 
at Hayenbach to the period of our passing 
Neuhaus, a passage of at least two hours, 



112 AUSTRIA. 

we had never caught even a momentary 
glimpse of the sun. He now burst upon 
us in all the glory of his setting, and we 
seemed absolutely to breathe more freely as 
we emerged from between the stupendous 
galleries of granite and pine, which had 
imprisoned us nearly all the way from Pas- 
sau. The mists of evening were fast set- 
tling upon bank and stream, as the lights of 
Aschach began to twinkle in the distance ; 
and before we could reach the village on 
the opposite bank, where it was our steers- 
man's intention we should sleep, it was 
quite dark. On going ashore, we found the 
little inn, or rather public-house of the 
place, completely occupied by the passen- 
gers and crew of the regular boat, that 
left Ratisbon the morning before we did, 
and which our night's voyage from Strau- 
bing to Vilshofen had enabled us to over- 
take. On crossing the threshold, however, 
of the dirty vault that " served it for par- 
lour and kitchen and all," we blessed our 
stars that there was no room for us ; and 
feeling our way out again, for the clouds of 
smoke that rose around rendered it impos- 
sible for us to rely solely on our visual facul- 



ASCHACH. 113 

ties, we intimated our intention of crossing 
the river to Aschach, where indeed we 
ought to have been originally landed ; but 
our pilot was either afraid of the sandbank 
in front of it after nightfall, or there was 
some understanding between him and the 
master of the public-house on the left bank, 
postillions and boatmen generally getting 
their own board and lodging gratis as a 
reward for bringing " grist to the mill," 
enough being invariably ground out of the 
said grist to indemnify the miller for any 
liberality he may have been guilty of to- 
wards the bearer. A lad soon made his 
appearance with a small boat, into which 
we jumped with our portmanteaus, and 
were ferried over to the end of a jetty, that 
has been thrown oat from the bank, in con- 
sequence of the sand deposited by the 
river, which has within the last few years 
receded considerably from the town. Here 
we found tolerable accommodation, and I 
lost no time in atoning to the drowsy god 
for the hours of which I had defrauded 
him, the previous night, upon the water. 

Aschach was a place of some import- 
ance, as early as the times of Charlemagne. 



114 AUSTRIA. 

Thassilo, Duke of Bavaria, gave in the year 
772, some vineyards at Aschach to the 
monks of Krems-Munster. In the eleventh 
century the knights of Aschach begin to 
be celebrated. The Counts of Schaumberg 
possessed it during the middle ages, from 
whom it passed to the Lords of Jorger. 
At present, as well as the lordship of 
Stauf, it belongs to the Counts of Harrach. 
The history of this little market-town, for 
nearly the two last centuries, is one unin- 
terrupted series of misfortunes. In 1626 
it was not only taken and plundered by the 
revolted peasantry, but was for some time 
their head quarters. They endeavoured 
to chain up the Danube at this place, and 
obliged the town of Steyer, which they 
had taken at their first rising, to furnish 
them with a chain one hundred fathoms 
long, every link weighing twenty pounds. 
Besides this chain, they threw across three 
other, and a couple of stout ropes, trusting 
thereby to intercept the provisions and 
reinforcements for the relief of Herber- 
storf s troops at Linz. But the Bavarian 
boats broke through this barrier, as they 
had already done through a similar one at 



ASCHACH. 115 

Engelhards-zell. In the second insurrec- 
tion, in 1632, the rebels surprised and plun- 
dered Aschach again, and remained there 
till Colonel Traun burnt their camp at 
Landshaag and dispersed them. In the 
contest with Bavaria, in 1809, Aschach 
suffered considerably both from friend and 
foe ; and the removal of the custom-house 
back to Engelhards-zell in 1819, from 
whence it had been brought at the com- 
mencement of the present century, was a 
severe blow to the trade, which had begun 
to recompense the inhabitants for their 
losses during the war. The extensive sand- 
bank which is yearly increasing before it, 
is an additional obstacle to its commerce, 
and Schultes indulges in melancholy pre- 
dictions respecting the ultimate fate of this 
unfortunate little town. The wine made in 
its neighbourhood, is remarkable only for its 
badness, and is the standing joke of the in- 
habitants themselves ; we must suppose, 
therefore, that it has either sadly degene- 
rated since Thassilo made the vineyards a 
present to his friends at Krems-Munster, or 
that the fraternity were in want of an imme- 
diate supply of vinegar. Aschach is the 

i 2 



116 



AUSTRIA. 



most northerly point, on the Austrian Da- 
nube, where grapes are cultivated for that 
purpose. But there is another piece of 
information respecting this place, which is 
of more consequence than any I have yet 
mentioned, to the modern traveller. The 
paper money (papier-geld) of Austria here 
first comes into play, and the unapprised 
foreigner is astonished at being apparently 
charged for his bed, supper, breakfast, or 
what not, about four times as much as he 
has been in the habit of paying since he 
entered the country of florins and kreutzers. 
The gold ducat also, which has passed 
throughout Bavaria for 4 fl. 54 L, and even 
5 fl. in some places, here falls to its regu- 
lar value of 4 \ florins only; and this sudden 
change is exceedingly perplexing to the 
stranger who has but just become acquainted 
with the Bavarian standard, in time to find 
it of no use to him.* 

* As soon as you reach Frankfort, the Prussian dollars and 
groschen cease to circulate generally, and your bill is made 
out in the money of the empire, that is, in florins or gouldens 
and kreutzers. The florin, or goulden, is a mere nominal 
coin of the value of sixty kreutzers, and the silver pieces in 
circulation are those of 3, 6, 10, 20, and. 30 kreutzers each, 
so marked on the reverse. In Bavaria, the 10, 20, and 30 
kreutzer pieces go for 12, 24, and 36 kreutzers ; so that the 



CASTLE OF SCHAUMBERG. 117 

At day-break, after a hasty cup of coffee, 
we re -trod the jetty, and found the boat 
waiting to take us over to our weitz-zille, 
which lay moored besides the smoky wirts- 
haus before mentioned. We were soon 
aboard and afloat again, and gliding by 
the mouth of the little river Aschach 
that joins the Danube close below the 
town. By its side, on a small hill, stand 
the scarcely visible remains of the castle 
of Stauf, once the property, as indeed was, 
at that time, the whole surrounding coun- 
try, of the mighty Counts of Schaumberg, 
who have been already so often mentioned; 
and, as the sun rose, his earliest beams fell 
upon the splendid ruins of the cradle of 
that great and ancient family— the once 
strong and beautiful castle of Schaumberg 
— still beautiful in decay, — on a gentle ac- 
clivity, and backed by the finely wooded 
mountains, on whose precipitous sides we 

gold ducat, the real value of which is 4J florins, will, in Ba- 
varia, pass for 4 fl. 54 &., and sometimes five florins. In 
Austria, however, the silver coins pass for no more than they 
are marked, and the ducat drops to 4JI. 30 k. The Venetian 
ducat, which is frequently met with in Austria, is worth a few 
kreutzers more than the German ducat. The paper florin, or 
goulden, is two-fifths, or, as the Austrians calculate, four- 
tenths of a good or silver florin. 



118 , AUSTRIA. 

had the previous day gazed so long with 
mingled awe and admiration. Nor were 
its picturesque white towers the only ob- 
jects of attraction in the magnificent scene 
which gradually expanded upon our sight, 
as the morning mist rose like a curtain from 
before it. The broad river lay gleaming 
like a sheet of burnished gold beneath us; 
before us a number of richly wooded islands 
divided the glittering stream into twenty 
different channels to the right and left. 
Looking westward, the mountains of Bava- 
ria and Bohemia stretched out their giant 
arms, as in despair at the escape of the 
flood they had so long held in thrall. At 
the mouth of the defile from which we had 
issued, stood the little town of Aschach. 
Still more to the south, the ruined castles 
of Stauf and Schaumberg, and, far away in 
the south-east, but clearly defined against 
the blue horizon, towered the Alps and 
Glaciers of the Steyer-Mark, their snowy 
and fantastic peaks alternately tinted with 
pink and purple, and gold, by the change- 
ful glories of sunrise. It was, indeed, a 
most exquisite panorama, and fully jus- 
tifies the heroics of Professor Schultes, 



CASTLE OF SCHAUMBERG. 119 

though, in his enthusiastic admiration of 
the Danube, he is unjust to the really 
beautiful Rhine. '* An Englishman," says 
he, " who had often made the voyage of the 
Danube, and also that of the Rhine, from 
Mainz to Utrecht, in search of the pictu- 
resque, showed me his journal of the Rhine 
voyage. It contained only two words 5 
'Toujours perdrix*.' " But to return to the 
Castle of Schaumberg. The picturesque 
ruins which formed so fine a feature in the 
prospect before us, were, as I have already 
said 5 the cradle and principal seat of the 
once terrible Counts of that name. In the 
twelfth century, their signatures appear to 
many deeds, spelt indifferently Schoum- 
bergh, Schowenberch, and Schawenberch. 
As late as 1548, the Schaumbergs were 
free counts of the empire,, and their names 
are entered in the Reichs-Matrikel, (the 
roll or register of the empire,) as bound to 
furnish six horse and twenty-six foot men 

* The remark does not say much for the taste or discrimi- 
nation of the Englishman, whoever he might be. There 
is an endless variety upon the Rhine, which yields to the 
Danube only in points of grandeur — in breadth, extent, and 
boldness of scenery. In variety, it quite equals the Danube, 
and, I should almost say, surpasses it. 



120 AUSTRIA. 

at arms, — a slender contingent for a family 
that could, by lifting a finger, have brought 
thousands into the field. Their domains 
extended from the Bavarian frontier, be- 
yond Linz, and included the market towns 
and castles of Baierbach, Stauf, Aschach, 
Efferding 5 Neuhaus, Flayenbach, Ober and 
Unter Wesen, Fichtenstein, Weidenholz, 
Mistelbach, nearly the whole of the Do- 
nau-Thal, from Passau to Schaumberg, and 
farther inland, in the old Traun-gau,Kam- 
mer upon the Attersee, Frankenberg, Wil- 
deneck, &c. &c. Wilhelm, son of Wern- 
hard, Count of Julbach, a descendant of 
one of the thirty -two children of Babo of 
Abensberg, was the first lord of the castle 
who assumed the name of Schaumberg, A. 
D. 1161. His successor, forming alliances 
with the families of the Landgraves of 
Leuchtenberg, the Burggraves of Niirnberg, 
and the Dukes of Austria, became gradu- 
ally more and more powerful, exacted heavy 
tolls on the Danube, at Neuhaus and As- 
chach, plundered travellers, took their less 
powerful neighbours prisoners, for the sake 
of extorting ransom, or compelling them to 



CASTLE OF SCHAUMBERG. 121 

join their league, and, in short, were wor- 
thy supporters of the famous U faust-recht" 
of Germany. # 

Sometimes, a twinge of conscience made 
them endeavour to propitiate heaven, by 
letting its servants share a little in the 
plunder ; and, with this view, they founded, 
in 1325, the Kloster of Saint Niklas by 
Passau, and, in 1323, the Convent at 
Baumgartenberg; and by degrees permitted 
the boats, &c. appertaining to most of the 
surrounding monasteries and convents, to 
pass Aschach toll free. 

Notwithstanding their alliance by mar- 
riage, terrible feuds were continually spring- 
ing up betwixt the Counts of Schaumberg 
and the Dukes of Austria; and the assist- 
ance which Henry of Schaumberg, in 1319, 
gave to Frederick the Handsome, against 
Louis the Bavarian, is almost a solitary in- 
stance of the families siding together in 
warfare. So much were their valour and 
influence dreaded by the principal poten- 
tates of Germany, that Albert II., Duke 

* Literally " fist-right," — the right of the strongest arm, — 
" The good (?) old plan, 
That they may take who have the power, 
And they may keep who can." 



122 AUSTRIA. 

of Austria, surnamed the Lame, and Louis 
the Bavarian, entered into a solemn con- 
tract at Passau in 1340, by which they 
bound themselves never to make offensive 
or defensive league with the Counts of 
Schaumberg. 

In 1366, Albert IIL # , having made 
war upon Henry Count of Schaumberg, 
the latter appealed to the Emperor Charles 
IV., who appointed the Burggraves of 
Niirnberg and Magdeburg . umpires be- 
tween the parties. The Burggraves de- 
cided in favour of Albert, and the Count of 
Schaumberg and his descendants were de- 
clared subjects of Austria, and the castles 
of Kammer, Neuhaus, and Fichtenstein for- 
feited to the duchy, besides the immense 
sum, for that period, of twelve thousand 
florins. Henry, enraged at this heavy sen- 
tence, took the first opportunity of renew- 
ing the war with Albert, who in 1379 in 

* Called, in the chronicles of the times, " Albert with the 
tress," because he wore a lock of hair, which he received 
either from his wife, or from some other distinguished lady, 
entwined with his own, and formed a society of the Tress, 
not unlike the commencement of our order of the Garter : he 
was likewise called the Astrologer, from his fondness for 
judicial astrology. — Coxe's « History of the House of Austria,' 
chap. 10. 



CASTLE OF SCHAUMBERG, 123 

person besieged the castle of Schaumberg; 
and the contest was carried on with great 
fury and bitterness, till Stephen, Duke of 
Bavaria, reconciled the parties and induced 
Count Henry to hold the castles of Neu- 
haus and Stauf, and the market town of 
Efferding, as fiefs of Austria. This peace, 
however, was, as might have been expected, 
of no long duration. The Counts again 
declared themselves independent, and the 
struggle continued with alternate success, 
till the church stept in out of pure charity, 
scandalized to see such a waste of treasure, 
and like the lawyer in the old story, settled 
the matter by swallowing the oyster and 
leaving the shells to the disputants. One 
by one the contested estates became the 
property of this and that kloster, till at 
length, in 1548, the family of Schaumberg 
became so straitened for means, that it 
could no longer defend the little that was 
left of its once immense dominions, and ac- 
knowledging the feudal sovereignty of 
Austria, became extinct in 1559 by the 
death of Count Wolfgang. — The castle of 
Schaumberg at present belongs to the 
Prince of Starrhemberg, an ancestor of 



124 AUSTRIA. 

whose family married one of the last female 
descendants of the line of Schaumberg. 
There is a tradition that the Danube origi- 
nally ran beneath its walls,but there appears 
no foundation for such a belief. The chapel 
and two watch-towers are still tolerably 
perfect : on the walls of the former there 
are said to exist some paintings of the four- 
teenth century ; I regret exceedingly that 
my ignorance of the fact, when I was in 
the vicinity, prevented my inspecting them. 
If they really be of the date assigned to 
them, and in tolerable preservation, they 
would be worth a pilgrimage. 

A stone pillar near a brook, in the valley 
before the castle, is said to record the fate 
of a Count of Schaumberg, who, though in- 
vincible in battle or tournament, could not 
resist the charms of a fair maiden, " armed 
at both eyes," the daughter of a miller, in 
the valley of Aschach. One night as he 
was riding to a rendezvous, his horse 
started (as well he might) at the sudden 
appearance of a fiery dragon that rushed 
out of a thicket before him, became un- 
manageable, plunged at last with his mas- 
ter over a precipice into the swollen tor- 



QBER-WALSEE. 125 

rent below ; and the first object that met 
the unfortunate maiden's sight when she 
opened her casement in the morning, was 
the floating corses of her noble lover and 
his favourite steed. 

Nearly facing Aschach, on the left 
bank, is the poor little market-town of 
Landshaag, formerly belonging to the con- 
vent of Niedernburg at Passau, but now, of 
course, to Austria. This little place suf- 
fered terribly during the insurrections of 
1626 and 1632, from the rebels, who in 
the latter year had their camp in its 
neighbourhood. 

About half an hour's walk to the east- 
ward of this little town stands, on the top 
of one of the Klausberge, in a forest of 
fruit-trees, the ruin of Ober-Walsee. A 
castle was originally built here by the 
Schaumbergs, but it was most probably 
destroyed by the celebrated Ulrich of 
Walsee, governor of Styria, who sup- 
pressed the rebellion which had broken 
out in these districts during the absence 
of Frederick the handsome, Duke of Aus- 
tria, in 1309, and repelled Otto Duke of 
Bavaria, who attempting to profit by the 



126 AUSTRIA. 

intestine commotion, had invaded Fre- 
derick's dominions ; Ulrich, before Fre- 
derick could hasten to his assistance, had 
already subdued the refractory, and ra- 
vaged their property with fire and sword. 
In return for this and other services ren- 
dered to the Dukes of Austria by the 
family of Walsee, Rodolph IV. gave per- 
mission to Eberhard von Walsee, in 1364, 
to build a strong fortress on the Klausberge, 
a permission which, while it had the appear- 
ance of a favour conferred upon the Lords 
of Walsee, furthered the views of the Duke, 
inasmuch as it placed a strong curb upon 
the neighbouring Counts of Schaumberg, 
the implacable enemies of the House of 
Hapsburg. The descendants of Eberhard 
possessed this castle, which received the 
name of Ober-Walsee, till the extinction of 
the male branch in 1485, when the last 
female of the family, Barbara of Walsee, 
in obedience to that power 

" Qui tient sous son empire 
Le genre humain les anes et les Dieux," 

gave her hand to Count Siegmund of 
Schaumberg, one of the sworn foes of her 
own house as well as that of Austria, and 



HANS OF ESCHELBERG. 127 

added both Ober andNieder-Walsee, a castle 
lower down on the Danube, to the posses- 
sions of the Schaumbergs. In 1559 the 
family of Schaumberg became also extinct ; 
and Ober-Walsee, after passing through 
several hands, descended to the Princes of 
Staremberg, who were also Lords of the 
neighbouring castle and domain of Eschel- 
berg. 

Respecting one Hans of Eschelberg, 
Schultes has a rigmarole story, which (unless 
he be jesting, and there is nothing to leadone 
to such a conclusion) proves him, however 
well acquainted with the history of his own 
country, unaccountably deficient in infor- 
mation regarding that of others. This said 
Hans, who commenced his military career 
under Louis the Bavarian, at the siege of 
Lindau, and received the honour of knight- 
hood from that Emperor, for his valiant 
exploits therein, followed John, King of 
Bohemia, into Poland, and shared in the 
victory of that monarch at Cracow; not 
finding himself sufficiently recompensed for 
his services, accepted an invitation from 
Edward III. of England, who was then be- 
sieging Calais, and assisted him in the re- 



128 AUSTRIA. 

duction of that place. So far so good ; but 
not contented with claiming these proba- 
ble services for his hero, Herr Schultes, 
upon the strength of a fragment of an old 
ballad, quoted by Hoheneck, makes him 
the bearer of the English standard at the 
battle of Cressy, where, " mirabile dictu," 
he took the French king prisoner with his 
own hand (at Cressy!). while his knightly 
companions slew John, King of Bohemia, 
and Peter, King of Navarre ! At a feast 
given on the field, in honour of the victory, 
Edward III. paid Sir Hans of Eschelberg 
the distinguished compliment of seating 
him between himself and the captive king, 
presented him with one hundred marks of 
silver, &c. &c. He afterwards returned to 
Germany, beat the Bohemians, became the 
champion of dukes, princes, and bishops ; 
flew back to his old friend Edward, when 
again investing Calais, who rewarded him 
with more money and honours ; returned 
again to his native land, and s after thirty 
years of battle and victory in all parts of 
Europe, died captain of the lands upon the 
Ens. The Professor seems quite heart- 
broken that this doughty warrior has never 



INSURRECTIONS OF THE 17TH CENTURY. 129 

been mentioned by any historian, and per- 
fectly unconscious of the way in which the 
author of the old ballad, with the license 
or ignorance of most of the romantic writ- 
ers of the middle ages, has mixed up the 
two perfectly distinct battles of Cressy and 
Poictiers, confounding incidents, leaders, 
and periods, with the utmost sang froid and 
complacency. 

The banks of the Danube, from Aschach 
to Linz, witnessed the greater part of those 
bloody struggles between the two principal 
sects of a religion revealed for the beneficent 
purpose of promoting " peace on earth, 
good will towards men," which convulsed 
the provinces of Upper Austria during the 
seventeenth century ; and as the actors in 
them have already been mentioned more 
than once, and will be frequently named 
hereafter, I shall venture to give, in as 
few words as possible, a sketch of the in- 
surrections of 1626 and 1632, particularly 
as they have been merely alluded to by 
Schiller, in his history of the thirty years' 
war, and Coxe, in his history of the House 
of Austria, the two most elaborate works 
upon that period familiar to the English 

K 



130 



AUSTRIA. 



reader,— the deeds of aGustavus, a Wallen- 
stein, and a Tilly, having naturally occu- 
pied their attention, to the exclusion of all 
less generally important circumstances. 

The object which Ferdinand II., Empe- 
ror of Germany, had most at heart, from 
worldly as well as spiritual motives, was 
the extirpation of the reformed religion. 
The battle of Prague had no sooner decided 
the fate of Bohemia, than he tore, with his 
own hand, the memorable letter of majesty 
extorted from Rudolph II. by the states of 
the kingdom, in favour of the Protestants, 
and burnt the seal; and proceeded not only 
to the revocation of the privileges granted 
to them by his predecessors, which he had 
not confirmed, but even of those which had 
received his own unqualified approbation. 
He intimated to all the Protestants in his 
dominions, that they must either abandon 
their religion or their native country, — a 
bitter and terrible choice, which excited 
the most violent commotions amongst his 
Austrian subjects, and particularly in the 
district above the Ens. Upper Austria had 
been, for some time, held in pledge by the 
Elector of Bavaria, for the indemnification 



INSURRRECTIONS OF THE 17TH CENTURY. 131 

promised him by the Emperor for his as- 
sistance against the Evangelic Union ; and 
Count Adam von Herberstorf, who com- 
manded the Bavarian troops at Linz, had 
been guilty of unnecessary severities to- 
wards its unfortunate inhabitants. On the 
17th of May, 1626, the flame, which had 
been long smothering, burst into a sudden 
and terrible blaze, in consequence of some 
excesses committed by a straggling party 
of Herberstorf J s soldiery. The Protestant 
peasantry flew to arms, and, in two days, 
took and plundered the towns of Aschach, 
Grieskirchen, and Baierbach, and the strong 
fortress of Velden. On the 20th of May, 
Herberstorf marched against the rebels at 
Baierbach, with twelve hundred men and, 
some artillery, but was repulsed with great 
loss; and, after having two horses killed 
under him, retreated in confusion to Linz. 
The peasantry were now headed by one 
Stephen Fadinger, a hatter ; and, in about 
ten days from their first rising, mustered 
full seventy thousand men, and possessed a 
park of thirty cannon. Within the first 
eight days, Fadinger had made himself 

master of Wels, Kremsmunster, Voglabruch,, 

k 2 



132 AUSTRIA. 

and Gmiinden, and in six more, with the 
exceptions of Freystadt, Ens, andLinz, the 
whole of Upper Austria was overrun, and 
subdued by the insurgents. Flushed with 
victory, Fadinger invested Linz on the 
25th of June, and would most probably have 
succeeded in reducing it, had he not re- 
ceived a shot in the thigh from one of 
Herberstorf 's musqueteers, in violation of 
a short armistice agreed upon between the 
leaders, June 28th, of which wound he 
died in the beginning of the following 
month*. His successor, Achaz Willinger 
von Katterhof, a nobleman, had neither his 
talent nor his good fortune. Steyer and 
Freystadt, which had fallen just before 
Fadinger's death, were retaken, fifteen 
hundred soldiers dispersed twelve thousand 
peasants, in the neighbourhood of Ens ; 
and, in two assaults upon Linz, the Protes- 
tants were repulsed with terrible slaughter. 
The Austrian commissioner had nearly suc- 
ceeded in his charitable endeavours to re- 
store peace, when some fresh cruelty of 

* Fadinger was a strong fatalist. Upon his standards were 
inscribed, by his order, the words, ,J Es muss seyn ! " " It 
must be." 



INSURRECTIONS OF THE 17TH CENTURY. 133 

HerberstorFs, or the soldiers under his 
copnmand, kindled anew the torch of dis- 
cord, and, by another change of fortune, 
the peasantry cut to pieces the troops of 
the Duke of Holstein-Gotton, at Wesen- 
Urfar, and successively defeated the Bava- 
rian general Lindlo, at Geyersberg, Count 
Preuner, at Haslach, Herberstorf, near 
Gmiinden, and even the valiant Lobel, at 
Wels. The celebrated Pappenheim, how- 
ever, whose mother Count Herberstorf had 
married, retrieved the fortunes of his party, 
by beating the rebels in three following 
battles at Efferding, Gmiinden, and Vogla- 
bruch, but not without considerable diffi- 
culty, as he himself acknowledges in a let- 
ter to Herberstorf. " It was/' he writes, 
" as if my cavalry had to combat the mas- 
sive rocks ; for these peasants fought not 
like men, but like infernal furies ! " These 
reverses decided the fate of the insurgents ; 
and, though the Imperial commissioner 
himself declared that the peasantry had not 
risen with treasonable intentions against 
the Emperor, but were goaded into the act 
by the severity of Herberstorf, nearly the 
whole of the prisoners were hung and 



134 



AUSTRIA. 



quartered, or impaled. Achaz Willinger, 
as he was a nobleman, was beheaded, and 
his body delivered to the Jesuits, who had 
not been the least important actors in this 
terrible tragedy. 

Six years had not elapsed before the 
continued persecution they experienced, 
stirred up the Protestants again to resist- 
ance. In 1632 a second rising of the pea- 
santry on the Ens was accompanied by the 
same slaughter, and the same devastation ; 
and in these two contests alone, which are 
but trifling episodes in the sanguinary his- 
tory of the thirty years war, upwards of 
fifty thousand subjects of Austria, upon a 
moderate calculation, were sacrificed to the 
childish superstition and inveterate bigotry 
of its ruler. " The victory of the White 
Mountain," says Schiller, "put Ferdinand 
in possession of all his dominions. He 
even received them with greater powers 
than his predecessors ; since their allegiance 
had been unconditionally pledged to him, 
and no letter of majesty now existed to 
limit his sovereign authority. The war 
was ended, if justice was his object; and if 
magnanimity was to be united with justice, 



INSURRECTION OF THE 17TH CENTURY. 135 

so was the punishment. The fate of Ger- 
many was in his hands ; the happiness and 
misery of millions were dependent on his 
resolution. Never was a more important 
trust placed in a single hand ; never was 
the blindness of one individual productive of 
more fatal consequences." The barbarities 
committed on both sides, during these con- 
flicts, were horrible beyond description. 
The peasantry had treasured up the recol- 
lection of the cruelties they had suffered at 
the hands of Herberstorf and his soldiery, 
and now repaid them with dreadful interest. 
Once goaded over the line of legal autho- 
rity, their ferocity knew no bounds : nor 
did they glut their lust of vengeance 
upon the soldiery only ; those of their own 
class and sect who did not immediately 
gather round the standard of insurrection, 
were mutilated or slaughtered without com- 
punction. On the other hand the prisoners 
taken by the Catholic party, were tortured 
and executed with a horrid ingenuity, that 
might have edified a Sioux Indian, or a 
Spanish inquisitor. Ferdinand would only 
remember that the inhabitants of Upper 
Austria had risen seven times in thirty- 



136 AUSTRIA. 

seven years , and would make no allowances 
for the provocations which had driven a 
naturally loyal people to desperation. He 
had been told by his Jesuits, that Protes- 
tantism and rebellion were synonymous 
terms, and to Ferdinand II. " the voice of 
a monk was the voice of God/' " Nothing 
on earth," writes his own confessor, " was 
more sacred in his eyes than the priest- 
hood. If it could happen, he used to say, 
that an angel and a clergyman were to 
meet him at the same time and place, the 
clergyman should receive his first, and the 
angel his second obeisance*." Gracious 
God ! for what wise purposes are men per- 
mitted to make Thy holy name a signal 
for butchery, to turn the manna of Thy 
word into poison, and sow with the brier 
and the thorn Thy " ways of pleasantness 
and Thy paths of peace." 

* And yet, as was most just, this poor weak bigot was 
condemned to see some of his dearest hopes frustrated by the 
treachery of one of his vaunted saints. " A Capuchin friar," 
exclaimed the deceived Emperor, when the duplicity of the 
celebrated Father Joseph became apparent, " has disarmed 
me with his rosary, and covered six electoral caps with his 
Cowl." 



137 



CHAPTER V. 

EfTerding. — Ottensheim. — Kloster-Willering. — Linz. — The 
Platz. — The Landstrasse. — The Schlossberg.— The Land- 
haus. — The Theatre. — The Bridge. — The Pdstlingberg.— 
View on leaving Linz. — Steyereck. — The River Traun. — 
Ebelsberg. — Luftenberg. — Monastery of St. Florian. — 
Tillysburg. — Spielberg. — Mauthausen. — Ens. — Origin and 
History of the City. — Antiquities discovered in its neigh- 
bourhood. 

From Aschach to Ottensheim is one la- 
byrinth of islands, through which few boats 
venture without a pilot, as the current of 
the river is continually changing its course, 
and the deep channel or ditch (Graberi) as 
the boatmen here call it, through which 
they have safely steered a few days before, 
may upon their second visit be transformed 
into a sandbank, or blocked up with trunks 
and branches of trees, washed into it by 
the floods that so frequently occur in this 
part of the country. "While passing through 
this archipelago, the banks of the river are 
seldom visible, but fortunately there is no- 
thing upon them tomakethat circumstance 
amatter of regret. The whole country be- 
tween Aschach and Willering is said to have 



138 AUSTRIA. 

been formerly the basin of one vast lake, 
cradled amongst the mountains of Bohemia, 
Moravia, and Upper Austria, and the name 
of Ilmersee, which appears in the thirteenth 
century, is quoted in confirmation of the 
tradition. The White Tower of Hart- 
kirchen is shortly seen on the right bank. 
The Catholic minister of this church, and 
his cook-maid, were cruelly murdered here, 
by the revolted peasantry in 1626. Pup- 
ping, celebrated for a dead saint, and Ber- 
gheim for a beautiful breweress *, whose 
strong beer and bright eyes distracted the 
heads and the hearts of her customers, 
and might have sorely tempted the holy 
St. Otmar himself, had the good man been 
living at the time. — Waschpoint, Worth, 
and two or three other small villages on the 
same bank all passed, were ached Efferding, 
one of the oldest places on the Danube. 
The beautiful Chrimhilt, the heroine of the 
Nibelungenlied, is said, in that poem, to 
have rested here upon her journey into 
Hungary. One of the Schaumbergs bought 

* Our language is sadly off for feminine terminations The 
German, brauerinn, kochinn, gartnerinn, &c. are most badly 
translated by female brewer, cook-maid, and woman gar- 
dener. 



EFFERDIKG. 139 

the little town from the Bishop of Passau 
in 1367, for four thousand florins ; and at 
the extinction of that family, it came to the 
Starrhembergs, who built a castle here, still 
called the Burg. A rich and valiant family, 
of the name of Schifer, founded and libe- 
rally endowed an hospital here, as early as 
1325, and expressly commanded that, when 
there was not a sufficient number of sick 
and poor in the town of Efferding to fill 
the hospital, the governor should send out 
" into the highways and hedges, and com- 
pel them to come in." 

On the 1st of September, 1632, the com- 
bined peasantry burned the suburbs, and, 
on the 25th, defeated the nephew and 
namesake of the great and merciless Tilly, 
but, shortly afterwards, were themselves 
defeated by the Imperial troops with great 
slaughter. Upwards of three thousand of 
the unfortunate men, who fell at various pe- 
riods in this neighbourhood, lie buried here, 
as did also their leader, Fadinger, till Her- 
berstorf had the body disinterred, and car- 
ried to Seebach, where it was flung into a 
hole beneath the gibbet. The historian 
Kurz has preserved the receipt for the 



140 AUSTRIA. 

money paid to the ministers of this paltry 
vengeance. The Bavarians plundered Effer- 
dingin 1704 and 1742, and it suffered con- 
siderably during the last war, from the 
continual fighting in its neighbourhood. A 
dozen small villages are scattered on each 
bank, between Efferding and Ottensheim ; 
and the Ihn, the Bosenbach, and the 
Rodel, wind amongst them to the Danube. 
At one of these little places, named Har- 
theim, dwelt in 1620 a lady of the family 
of Aspan, the fame of whose wealth, ac- 
cording to Hoheneck, determined a Prince 
of Saxony to make a personal proposal of 
marriage. Travelling incognito with only 
two attendants, he fell, near Efferding, into 
the hands of the rebel peasantry, who, 
taking the unfortunate suitor for a spy, put 
him and his domestics instantly to the sword. 
At length, we approached the square white 
tower, which had been for some time 
gleaming above the intervening islands ; 
and as we issued from amongst them, the 
little market town of Ottensheim, with its 
chateau and church, all grouped as with 
an eye to effect, upon a gentle eminence 
projecting into the Danube, gradually 



OTTENSHEM. 141 

glided into view. On a house in the market- 
place, is the figure of a child in a cradle, 
surmounted by a canopy, and underneath it 
are the following lines : 

" Im 1208 Jahr. 
Da Ottensheim noch nicht genannt war, 
1st Kaiser Otto Auserkohren 
Alhier in diesen Haus geboren." 

What Emperor Otto, the worthy com- 
poser of this distich intended us to be- 
lieve was born here in 1208, I cannot pre- 
tend to determine, as the fourth and last 
emperor of that name was elected as early 
as 1 197 ; and that the place was not called 
Ottensheim before that period, appears to 
be another equally unfortunate assertion. 

Leopold II., Duke of Austria, who died 
in 1194, sold Wechsenberg, Ottensheim, 
Grein, and Hartenstein, to Otto von Schle- 
ung, "mit leuth und gut,'' (with people and 
property,) for six hundred pounds of silver. 
In the fourteenth century, Heinrich vonNeu- 
haus, Peter von Sternberg, and Ulrich von 
Landstein, laid waste this part of the coun- 
try to the walls of Ottensheim, and began 
a feud, which desolated Upper Austria for 
upwards of one hundred years. In 1626, 
a body of the insurgents, under a leader 



142 AUSTRIA. 

named Christoph Zeller, established their 
head-quarters at Ottensheim; and the 
French plundered the town, both in their 
disastrous retreat in 1742, and their victo- 
rious march to Vienna in 1809. Otten- 
sheim, however, has recovered from its 
many disasters, and drives a tolerably brisk 
trade in linen, wood and fruit, pit-coal and 
alum. Between Ottensheim and Kloster- 
Willering, which faces it, there is another 
rapid race of the river, that forms quite a 
little sea of billows. Kloster-Willering lies 
at the foot of the fir-crowned Kirnberg, 
which, rising on the right bank, extends 
its forest-covered masses as far as Linz. 
The Kloster was originally the castle 
of the Knights of Willering, descended 
from the old Counts of Kirnberg. Cholo 
and Ulrich of Willering, Barons of Werem- 
berg, established some Cistertian monks 
herein 1146. Ulrich went to Palestine, 
from whence he never returned. With him 
his family became extinct, and the whole 
of his great possessions fell to the fortunate 
monks of Willering. They soon wheedled 
themselves into the confidence and favour 
of all the noblest and richest families of 
Upper Austria, many of the heads of which 



KLOSTER-WILLERING. 143 

joined their fraternity. The Archdukes of 
Austria themselves highly patronized this 
Kloster, and freed it from all tolls and 
taxes ; and it shortly became so powerful, 
that it assumed a species of jurisdiction 
over all the other establishments of its or- 
der, upon the banks of the Danube, as far 
as Engelhardszell. One of its abbots, in 
1544, played it a scurvy trick. He was a 
Niirnberger by birth, and named Erasmus 
Villicus. Scarcely had he been raised to 
this enviable dignity, when he took unto 
himself a wife, and one fine night disap- 
peared with the lady, and all the jewels of 
the Kloster ! From that period, a chain of 
misfortunes seems to have attended it. It 
was twice or thrice plundered during the 
insurrections ; nearly burned to the ground 
in 1733 ; suffered in an action between the 
French and Austrians, in 1742 ; and by an 
inundation in 1787, when the Danube over- 
flowed its banks to the height of full seven 
fathoms. 

After washing the walls of Kloster Wil- 
lering, the Danube enters another beau- 
tiful valley, skirted on one side by the 
dark forests of the Kirnberg, and on the 



144 AUSTRIA, 

other by groves of a lighter green, inter- 
spersed with cottages and gardens, over 
which, in the distance, rise the spires of 
Postlingberg, announcing to the traveller 
the vicinity of Linz. On the brink of each 
bank runs a carriage-road, the one on the 
right being the high post-road to Regens- 
burg and Niirnberg, and that on the left 
leading to Ottensheim, Grammetstetten, 
and Landshag. This beautiful valley is the 
favourite promenade of the Linzers, who 
flock on a fine summer afternoon through 
the woods on the right bank, to a hunting 
lodge in the Kirnbergerwald, near which 
stand the ruins of Helfenberg, the cradle 
of the old Counts of Kirnberg ; and in the 
winter go in sledges to Willering, and the 
neighbouring places, to drink wine, beer, 
and coffee, smoke, knit, and hear music. 

Having rounded the point of land over- 
looked by the lofty Postlingberg, — the 
city of Linz, — the capital of Upper Austria, 
— with its long wooden bridge, gradually 
makes its appearance. Beneath the rocks 
on the right bank, stands a long line of 
houses and chapels, some romantically 
situated in little clefts of the rocks, and 



LFNZ. 145 

surrounded by firs and pines. This place 
is called the Calvarienberg (Mount Cal- 
vary), and is the scene of numberless pro- 
cessions and religious ceremonies of the 
Catholic inhabitants of Linz. 

Linz is a handsome, clean, and cheerful 
looking city, and the inhabitants may be 
said to partake the good qualities of their 
town. The Linzer women are famed for 
beauty, if we may believe the guide-books, 
and who would dare to doubt them upon such 
a subject? — honestly, however, I cannot 
say I remarked any extraordinary difference 
between the lasses of Linz, and their Bava- 
rian neighbours. The young females of the 
lower and middling classes, throughout the 
south of Germany, are in general plump, 
good-humoured looking girls, with florid 
complexions, large laughing blue eyes, 
snub noses, and light hair. Amongst the 
nobility and gentry, indeed, are some of the 
loveliest creatures I ever saw, and more 
resembling our own sweet countrywomen 
than the females of any other nation in 
Europe. But, as honest Cowley says : 

■ " Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape, 

Who dost in every country change thy shape : 

L 



146 AUSTRIA. 

Here black, there brown, here tawny, and there white, 
Thou flatterer, who comply'st with every sight: 
— Who hast no certain what nor where ; 
But vary'st still, and dost thyself declare 
Inconstant as thy she-professors are 1 — " 

Who shall define thee ?— 

Amongst the men a very visible altera- 
tion in person had taken place, even before 
we arrived at Linz. There appeared to me 
considerably more of the Greek and Italian 
than the German cast of feature in the 
Austrian countenance. Long aquiline noses, 
dark eyes and swarthy complexions were 
new objects to me in German faces. Civi- 
lity, kindness, and good humour, however, 
reigned in the hearts and manners of both 
sexes ; and after the gloomy pictures I have 
seen so frequently drawn in England, of 
the degraded and miserable condition of 
the people of Austria, it was curious 
enough to mark the content and gaiety 
that, at least, appeared to pervade every 
class of his Imperial Majesty's subjects. 
Having tasted nothing since our single cup 
of coffee at Aschach, we hastened to the 
Golden Lion, the best inn we saw upon the 
Platz, and made a capital breakfast, in an 
apartment on the first floor, fitted up pre- 



LINZ. 147 

cisely like an English coffee-room, the 
windows commanding a good view of the 
Platz, which (it being a market morning) 
presented a lively and interesting appear- 
ance. It is a fine, spacious, oblong square, 
between eight and nine hundred feet in 
length, and upwards of three hundred 
broad *, surrounded on three sides by hand- 
some houses built of freestone, (some of 
these five stories high,) and ornamented 
with a twisted column, surmounted by a 
gilt glory, erected by the Emperor Charles 
VI., in 1713, in memory of a great plague. 
South of this column, the square was filled 
with market-people and purchasers. The 
ground was covered with their large flat 
baskets, containing all kinds of provisions. 
By the side of each stood the vendor, in his 
or her provincial costume ; and amongst the 
motley crowd moved the mistresses and 
maidens of Linz, the former dressed " a la 
Fran^aise," with the exception of short 
sleeves, and long gloves tied above the 

* The old rhyming chronicler, Bruschius, says, 

" Passibus in longum patet area tota trecentis, 
In latum centum passibus atque decern." 
* L 2 



148 AUSTRIA. 

elbow, a fashion peculiar to Germany ; and 
the latter in their little jackets, coloured 
petticoats, and splendid caps of gold bro- 
cade, entitled " Linzer hauben," modelled, 
one would suppose, from the gorgeous crest 
of a Chinese or golden pheasant. Exactly- 
facing our windows was a large house, 
where, over the porte cochere, the Austrian 
Eagle (that " rara avis in terris, nigroque 
simillima cygno" with two necks) sprawled 
upon a yellow board, all legs and wings, 
like a bird of prey on a barn door, and under 
it paraded a tall mustachoed Austrian gre- 
nadier sentinel, in white and black uniform, 
black gaiters, and portentous bear-skin cap, 
while half a dozen soldiers of other regi- 
ments lounged about the gateway of the 
Kaiserlich, — Koniglich, — something or 
other, that I could not exactly make out, 
and added considerably to the picturesque 
effect of the whole scene. 

Breakfast over, we repaired to the po- 
lizey, to reclaim our passports, exchanged 
on landing for a printed paper containing, 
in German, French, and Italian, an injunc- 
tion, under certain pains and penalties, to 
present yourself to the police, within 



LINZ. 149 

twenty-four hours after your arrival ; those 
secured, we rambled over the town, which 
has nothing particularly worth notice in 
the way of buildings. There is a tolerably 
handsome church near the post-office, and 
polizey-direction ; in a long airy street, 
(the landstrasse) that runs right out into 
the country ; for, unlike continental towns 
in general, Linz has no gloomy gateways 
or frowning barriers ; a light turnpike a 
little way out of the town on the high-road, 
painted, as they all are in Germany, with 
the colours of the empire or kingdom, and 
resembling, exceedingly, the now nearly 
exploded barber's pole, alone indicates the 
spot where the land-traveller must exhibit 
his passport and pay the little weg-geld or 
road-toll, to an officer stationed for that 
purpose at a neighbouring cottage. A 
little arch, under which you pass into the 
Platz from the bank of the Danube, is 
dignified by the name of the Wasser-thor ; 
and you are directed to the Haupt-thor, the 
Schmidt-thor, and the Land-haus-thor, as 
you might in London be directed to Lud- 
gate, or to Holborn-bars, but the Thor itself 
has long vanished. Eiesbeck, who travelled 



150 AUSTRIA. 

through Germany in 1780, speaking of 
Linz, says, " the city is open on all sides, 
and the town and country seem so united, 
that if my spirit of knight errantry would 
allow it, I would pitch my tent, and lay my 
travelling staff up, here ;" and gives ho- 
nourable testimony to " the industry, hap- 
piness, and prosperity of the eleven thou- 
sand inhabitants who dwell in it." If the 
late wars have occasioned any decrease of 
its prosperity, they have either not had that 
effect upon its population, or the inhabitants 
have been singularly fortunate in repairing 
damages, since the peace. Their number 
is now, by two different accounts, estimated 
at sixteen, and twenty thousand. From 
the Schlossberg, on the west of the city, 
you have a fine view over the Danube and 
the surrounding country. Upon this rock 
anciently stood the citadel of Linz, in 
which Richard Cceur de Lion, it is said, w r as 
feasted as he returned from his long Aus- 
trian captivity. The Archduke frequently 
resided here, and Rodolph II. considerably 
enlarged it. The Emperor Ferdinand I. 
still further enlarged and beautified it. It 
was afterwards converted into barracks, 



LINZ, 151 

and, finally , into an hospital, which was 
burned down in 1800. Upon its site a 
commodious workhouse has been erected ; 
and the poor now eat their crumbs upon 
the spot where formerly stood " the rich 
man's table." There are many charitable 
establishments * and public schools in Linz, 
as well for Catholics as Protestants, and 
some considerable manufactories, one of 
which (the Imperial and Royal Woollen 
Cloth Manufactory) is a little town in 
itself. 

The Landhaus, the Guildhall of Linz, (or 
rather, the Government House of Upper 
Austria, where the president and eight 
counsellors appointed for the administration 
of justice in the country above the Ens, 
hold their sessions,) stands on the prome- 
nade, and was originally a Franciscan con- 
vent, built, in 1287, by Eberhard von Wal- 
see. From a window of this building, the 

* A tailor of Linz, named Kellerer, established an asylum 
for thirty orphans ; and in 1734, another tradesman, named 
Adam Pruner, bequeathed one hundred and eighty-one thou- 
sand florins to the poor of the town, the interest of which 
supports twenty-seven children, twenty- seven men, and 
twenty-seven women. The Emperor Joseph II. and the 
Empress Maria Theresa have also founded charities here. . 



152 AUSTRIA. 

shot was fired that mortally wounded the 
rebel captain, Stephen Fadinger. Near the 
Landhaus is the new theatre. The old 
one was destroyed by the fire in 1800, 
which reduced to ashes the greater part of 
this quarter of the town. The erection of 
the present building cost ninety-six thou- 
sand florins. Under the same roof, is the 
Redouten-Saal, or Assembly Room for mas- 
querades, balls, &c. 

The old chroniclers are not agreed as to 
the origin and foundation of Linz. Lazius 
would trace it to the Roman Lentium, or 
Lentia, destroyed by the Huns. Bruschius, 
in his rhyming panegyric, says, 

" Hanc quis condidit primus, quo tempore et anno, 
Nominis aut hujus quae sit origo vetus ; 
Vix poterit dici : siquidem Germania fastos 
Non tanta scripsit religione suos, 
Quanta vel Greeci feeerunt laude, vel ipsi 
Ausonii proceres Romuleique patres." 

Under Louis the Child, Linz was known as 
a toll-place on the Danube, and the seat of 
the Counts of Kirnberg. The last of this 
family sold, according to Lazius, the whole 
of his dominions to the Markgraves of Aus- 
tria. When the Emperor Frederick II., 
" the pupil, the enemy, and the victim of the 



LINZ. 153 

church," was excommunicated by Pope 
Gregory IX. the second time, in 1236, 
Linz was besieged by the powers of the 
King of Bohemia, the Duke of Bavaria, the 
Patriarch of Aquileia, and the Bishops of 
Bamberg, Freysingen, and Passau. Frede- 
rick, however, assisted only by Albert, 
Count of Pogen, relieved the good city, 
and took one of the church militant, the 
Bishop of Passau, prisoner. During the 
reign of Rodolph of Hapsburg, Linz was 
plundered by Henry, Duke of Bavaria ; and, 
in 1335, the Emperor Louis the Bavarian 
here invested the Dukes of Austria with 
Carinthia and the Tyrol, and entered into 
an offensive and defensive alliance, to se- 
cure the succession of those countries 
against the pretensions of the King of Bo- 
hemia and his heirs*. In 1481, the whole 
city was destroyed by fire, with the excep- 
tion of the castle and one street. The 
Emperor Frederick III. caused it to be re- 
built and considerably enlarged, and de- 
clared it, in 1490, the capital of Upper 

* The Dukes of Austria were afterwards compelled to cede 
the Tyrol, but Carinthia has ever since that period continued 
in the possession of their House. Coxe's Hist. i. 155, Pel- 
zel, Schmidt, Struvius, &c. 



154 AUSTRIA. 

Austria. He bought the village of Urfar, 
till then only inhabited by fishermen, and, 
flinging a wooden bridge over the Danube 
to it from Linz, it, in a short time, became 
a kind of suburb to the city. On the 19th 
of August, 1493, Linz lost its imperial be- 
nefactor. Frederick died in this city, of 
which he may almost be called the foun- 
der, at the advanced age of seventy-eight, 
and after a reign of fifty-three years, the 
longest of any emperor since the days of 
Augustus. He had been afflicted with a 
cancerous ulcer in his leg. As the only 
means of relief, he submitted to amputa- 
tion; but, from the unskilfulness of the 
surgeon, and the vitiated state of his blood, 
a second amputation was necessary. He 
bore these painful operations with extreme 
fortitude, and gave a singular proof of his 
characteristic phlegm. Taking the severed 
limb in his hand, he said to those who were 
present, " What difference is there between 
an emperor and a. peasant? or rather, is 
not a sound peasant better than a sick em- 
peror? Yet I hope to enjoy the greatest 
good which can happen to man: a happy 
exit from this transitory life." He seemed 



LINZ. 155 

to be in a fair state of recovery, but his 
rigid observation of a fast, during which, 
in opposition to his medical attendants, he 
would take nothing but melons and water, 
brought on a dysentery, which, in his debi- 
litated condition, became fatal. I agree 
with Schultes in thinking that an equestrian 
statue of this benefactor of Linz would be 
a more handsome and appropriate orna- 
ment for its principal square, than the co- 
lumn before mentioned. In 1521-2, the 
Archduke Ferdinand, afterwards emperor 
and founder of the German branch of the 
House of Austria, solemnized, at Linz, his 
nuptials with Anne, Princess of Hungary 
and Bohemia. Thrice, during the remain- 
der of that century, was Linz visited with 
the awful scourge of pestilence. In 1620, 
the whole of Upper Austria was pledged to 
Bavaria; and, during the insurrections as 
already related, Linz was invested by the 
peasants under Fadinger, and its suburbs 
were reduced to ashes. Keppler, the fa- 
mous astronomer, who at that time resided 
in them, lost some valuable MSS. in the 
flames. Linz was thrice stormed during 
those disturbances. In 1741, Linz was 



156 AUSTRIA. 

taken possession of by the allied French 
and Bavarian army, under Marshal Bellisle 
and the Elector, and in the three unsuccess- 
ful struggles of Austria against Napoleon 
in 1800, 1805, and 1809, it suffered, in 
common with other towns upon the Da- 
nube, the various razsfortunes of war. 

The wooden bridge across the Danube, 
I have already said, was first built in 1490, 
but there is mention made of a bridge as 
early as 1 106. It is conjectured, however, 
that it must have been a bridge of boats 
only, as the first regular bridge across to 
Urfar was certainly that thrown over by 
Ferdinand*. A stroll across this bridge, 
which is upwards of one thousand feet in 
length, through the little town of Urfar* 
(for though it merely looks like the suburb 
of Linz, it has risen to the dignity of a 
markt f,) and up the steep Postlingberg, to 
the church and observatory on its summit, 
would, no doubt, repay any one for the 

* Bruschius tells us of a capuchin, named Waltherus, 
" Qui nondum vinclis conjunctum aut pontibus Istrum 
Emensus sicco dicitur esse pede." 
Perhaps the river was frozen at that time. 

f In the campaign of 1809, damage was done in this little 
town alone to the amount of 1,326,621 florins. 



LINZ. 157 

trouble if he could afford the time, as far 
as an extensive and beautiful view goes ; 
but, as my object was to travel through 
Austria, and not merely look over it, as a 
certain respectable personage is said " to 
look over Lincoln, 1 ' nothing but a view 
being to be gained by it, I declined the in- 
vitation ; and having revictualled our bark, 
for we always dined on board, about twelve 
o'clock, we 

" All got under weigh, 
And bade a long adieu to" — 

the capital of Upper Austria. 

The retrospective view, after we had 
left Linz about a quarter of a mile behind 
us, was exceedingly beautiful, as beautiful, 
perhaps, as the view on leaving Passau, but 
of quite a different character. The city 
lay on our left, the beach before it crowded 
with people, and piled with merchandise,— 
a regiment of infantry marching out of the 
Wasser-thor, drums beating and colours 
flying; the bridge, alive with passengers, 
stretched across the gulf, from whence the 
Danube rushed panting out, and then spread 
itself, right and left, like a calm bright lake 
before us. In front, gradually rising from 



158 AUSTRIA. 

the water's edge, and spotted with the 
white straggling buildings of the little town 
of Urfar, towered the majestic Postling- 
berg, cultivated to its summit, and crowned 
by its church and observatory. More to 
the right arose the Pfenningberg, equally 
lofty, and similarly chequered with corn and 
meadow land. Between them, lay a soft 
green valley, in the bosom of which nestled 
the old village of Magdalena, the spire of 
its ancient church just peeping above the 
trees. A cloudless deep blue sky formed 
the back ground of this rich and laughing 
picture, that gladdened the heart, and filled 
it " almost to overflowing" with love and 
gratitude to that ineffable spirit, the Great 
Architect and 

" Author of this Universe, 
And all this good to man! For whose well-being, 
So amply, and with hands so liberal, 
He hath provided all things." 

Looking forward on our course, a crowd 
of little villages appeared on the left 
bank of the river, which again meandered 
amongst woody islands, and received, just 
below a small hamlet called Furth,thetiny 
stream of the Kitzelbach. Farther on, 



STEYERECK. 159 

upon the same bank, rose the half burned 
chateau of Steyereck, upon a small hill, in 
front of the forest-covered mountains which 
again line that side of the river. The little 
market-town of Steyereck is hidden behind 
the poplars of an island close to the shore. 
Steyereck was formerly a place of some 
commercial importance*, but the Danube 
has receded of late years considerably from 
its walls ; and the large sand-banks it has 
left behind it, prevents the lading or unlad- 
ing of vessels, which now seek some more 
fortunate town. A little trouble and ex- 
pense would, it appears, remove the sand, 
and restore the Danube to its original 
channel, thereby not only greatly benefiting 
Steyereck, but all the surrounding coun- 
try, which is now, from the new course of 
the river, subjected to continual inunda- 
tions, disasters that this work would greatly 
diminish in number, if not entirely prevent. 
No measures have as yet, however, been 
taken to effect this desirable purpose. The 
worthy Austrian would be considerably 

* Steyereck was once famous for its potteries ; but the 
manufactories have fallen to decay, notwith standing the fine 
clay which is still to be found in its neighbourhood. 



160 AUSTRIA. 

improved, could a little of the persevering 
industry of the Hollander be infused into 
his composition. Steyereck belonged ori- 
ginally to the monks of Kremsmunster, but, 
as early as 1136, it had fallen into the 
power of a family named Khuenringe, who 
lorded it over the greater part of the Nord- 
waldes. Albert, of Khuenringe, sold the 
Castle of Steyereck, in 1.280, to Ulrich von 
Kapell, surnamed " The Long," who, in 
the famous battle of Marchfield, between 
the Emperor Rudolph I. and Ottocar, King 
of Bohemia, rescued the valiant founder of 
the House of Hapsburg from a gigantic 
Thuringian knight, named Valens, who had 
unhorsed and wounded him, and, by his 
courage and exertions, decided the fortune 
of the day. 

"Terra Rudolphus hostium ductus globo 
Multorura, et unus jam pedes vim sustinet. 
Ulricus alis advolans Capellides, 
Ceu saeva raptis ursa pro catulis nova 
Irrumpit acie, ferro iter per inimicos seeat, 
Alio reservat Csesarem statuens equo, etc." 

Calaminus in Rudolpho Ottocaro. 

It remained in the family of the Kapel- 
lers till the extinction of the male branch 
in 1409, when the last daughter of that 



EBELSBERG. 161 

house married Heinrich von Liechtenstein. 
In. 1569, one of the Lichtensteins sold 
Steyereck to Christopher Jorger, of Tol- 
leth; and, in 1635, the town and castle were 
given as a dower with Elizabeth Jorger, to 
David Ungnad, Count of Weissenwolf, who 
built the present chateau. In 1770, the 
lightning fired the building, and a valuable 
library and collection of pictures were ut- 
terly consumed. 

Nearly facing Steyereck, is the mouth 
of the green and beautiful river Traun, 
which, rising out of the Grundel-See in the 
romantic Steyermark, flows through the 
lakes of Hallstadter and Gmiinden, and 
swelled by the Ager, the Alben, and the 
Krems, hurries, foaming under the bridge 
of Ebelsberg, into the Danube. Ebelsberg, 
or Ebersberg, which lies on the right bank 
of the Traun, and is visible from the Da- 
nube, is a place of great antiquity*, and 
the scene of a desperate battle between the 

* In 1787, a stone coffin was dug up in the neighbourhood 
of Ebelsberg, five feet long, and one foot two inches wide. 
On the breast of the skeleton within lay a golden ring, of 
rather an oval shape, and rude workmanship ; at its feet was 
a drinking glass, which had contained some clear liquid, but 
it was unfortunately broken, and the liquid spilt, in the open- 
ing of the coffin. Vide Kurz Belrage, 3 Th. S. xvii. 

M 



162 AUSTRIA. 

French and the Austrians, fought on the 
3d of May, 1809. General Claparede's di- 
vision stormed Ebelsberg from the bridge 
across the Traun, under a tremendous fire 
of artillery directed against the bridge, by 
the Austrian Field-Marshal Hiller. Clapa- 
rede succeeded in carrying the place, but 
with dreadful slaughter. Another column 
of French, who had passed the river higher 
up, upon entering the town, revenged the 
death of their comrades most fearfully upon 
the Viennese volunteers who had so bravely 
defended it, three hundred of whom were 
burned alive in the castle, the town having 
taken fire during the assault, and the rest 
cut to pieces. From twelve to sixteen 
thousand men fell in this terrible conflict ; 
and the banks of the Traun, from Ebels- 
berg to the Danube, were literally covered 
with slain *. 



* General Jominy gives the following account of this san- 
guinary affair, in his Political and Military Life of Napoleon. 
" Hiller had abandoned the barrier of the Inn without fight- 
ing, but he resolved to defend the passage of the Traun at 
the formidable position of Ebersberg. A wooden bridge, 
thirty fathoms long, presented a more fearful obstacle than 
that of Lodi, it being terminated by a walled town, com- 
manded by a castle, and crowned by heights of very difficult 
access. To cross this bridge, in the face of thirty thousand 



EBELSBERG. 163 

The Emperor Arnulph gave Ebelsberg, 
then called Eporesburg, to the monks of 
Kremsmiinster, A. D. 893, together with 
the confiscated property of a Count Engel- 
schalk, who carried off the Emperor's natu- 
ral daughter. Arnulph feigned forgiveness, 

men and eighty pieces of cannon, was not an easy matter. 
Massena was not ignorant of Napoleon's intention to turn 
this impregnable post by Lambach, but the impetuous valour 
of General Cohorn hurried him into a sanguinary enterprise. 
Three Austrian battalions, that had been imprudently left in 
front of the bridge, were overthrown, and driven, at the point 
of the sword, to the gates of the town, which were closed 
against them. Cohorn forced the gates, and penetrated into 
the principal street. Massena supported him first by the rest 
of Claparede s division, and then by that of Legrand. A des- 
perate conflict was kept up from street to street, and from 
house to house. Claparede had just possessed himself of the 
castle, when Hiller threw four fresh columns into the town, 
who opened themselves a passage with the bayonet. A hor- 
rible slaughter ensued ; several houses took fire that were 
filled with wounded and with combatants, whom the crowded 
state of the streets prevented from escaping. War never pre- 
sented a more cruel scene. At length, tired with carnage, 
the Austrians abandoned Ebersberg, and our troops de- 
bouched against the heights, where a still more unequal 
combat commenced. The arrival of Durosnel's division of 
cavalry by the right bank, and the certainty that his position 
would be turned by Lannes, decided Hiller at length to fall 
back with all speed upon Enns. . . . This vigorous 
blow was still more honourable to the French troops, as the 
greater part engaged in this business was composed of sol- 
diers who had never before seen a battle. It cost Hiller from 
six to seven thousand men. We had to regret the loss of from 
four to five thousand brave fellows, a great number of whom 
had fallen a prey to the flames." — Vie Politique et Militaire 
de Napoleon. 8vo. Paris, 1827, torn. iii. pp. 181 — 3. 

M 2 



164 AUSTRIA. 

and luring the Count back from Zwenti- 
bold, whither he had fled with the Princess, 
delivered him over to the diet at Ratisbon, 
who condemned him to lose his eyes, and 
his nephew Wilhelm, his head. In the 
year 900, Count Sighard (whose name is 
handed down to the modern traveller, by 
the little post town of Sighardskirchen, near 
Vienna) built a castle at Ebelsberg, which 
was destroyed on the defeat of the Germans 
by the Hungarians in 993. A new castle 
was built shortly afterwards on the same 
spot, and destroyed by Frederick of Aus- 
tria in 1242, in consequence of the ex- 
cesses committed by Rudiger, Bishop of 
Passau, who, in conjunction with the Lords 
of a castle at Obernberg on the Inn, kept 
the whole intervening country in a state of 
terror. It was again rebuilt, and Rodolph 
of Hapsburg defeated here one hundred 
and twenty knights, previous to his battle 
with Ottocar. In 1586, this thirdcastle was 
destroyed by fire. Stephen Fadinger esta- 
blished his head-quarters here in 1626, 
and arrested the Imperial Commissioners. 
In the August of that year the peasants 
were defeated at Ebelsberg, with the loss 
of two thousand men. 



MONASTERY OF ST. FLORIAN. 165 

Below Steyereck, the left bank alone is 
hilly ; the right resumes the flat, sedgy 
appearance it presented from Regensburg 
to Straubing. Luftenberg, an old place 
upon the left bank, commanding a fine 
view over the opposite country, is princi- 
pally remarkable as the spot where the 
fanatical visionary Laimbauer held forth in 
1635-36. He entrenched himself, with the 
wretched enthusiasts who followed him, 
in the church of Frankenberg, and after 
wounding and killing many of the officers 
sent to apprehend him, from its windows, 
left his disciples to be burnt alive. He 
was, however, taken in his attempt to 
escape the flames, and executed at Linz. 
The monastery of St. Florian now ap- 
peared on our right, and shortly afterwards 
the chateau called Tilly's Burg. St. Flo- 
rian, to whose honour the monastery was 
erected, suffered martyrdom A. D. 303, 
at Lorch on the Ens, where, by order of 
a commander named Aquilinus, he was 
thrown from the bridge into the river, 
with a stone round his neck. His spirit 
appeared to a matron, and directed her 
where to find and where to bury his body ; 



166 AUSTRIA. 

and over his grave, as the story runs, an 
altar was first erected, then a church, and 
lastly a kloster. Stephen Fadinger had 
his head-quarters here in 1626. 

Tilly's Burg is a large square building 
with four towers, and said to contain as 
many windows as there are days in the 
year, a peculiarity attributed to at least a 
dozen places in England, and I believe 
generally reported of every mansion with 
more windows than one would take the 
trouble to count. On the spot where this 
chateau now stands, once arose the tower 
of the castle of Volkerstorf, the seat of one 
of the most ancient and powerful families 
in Austria. Some warriors of that name 
fought at Constanz as early as 948. In 
1146 a Volkerstorf accompanied Duke 
Leopold to the tournament at Zurich. Or- 
tolph von Volkerstorf stabbed Henrich 
Wittigo, secretary to the Emperor Fre- 
derick IL, in the monastery of St. Florian, 
for which deed he and his brother were 
banished, their property confiscated, and 
their castle destroyed. In the Diet of 
Augsburg, A. D. 1275, Bernhard von Vol- 
kerstorf spoke vehemently against Ottocar, 



tilly's burg. 167 

King of Bohemia, whom he openly accused 
of attempting to poison his own wife, and 
of tyrannising over Austria. Under the 
protection of the House of Hapsburg, the 
Volkerstorfs returned to their native coun- 
try, and rebuilt their castle in 1331. In 
1558 it suffered materially by fire, and the 
last of the family having embraced the 
Lutheran faith, the whole of his property 
was confiscated in 1620, and the castle 
given, three years afterwards, by the Em- 
peror Ferdinand, to the famous Count 
Tserclas von Tilly *. In 1630-32, he built 

* This extraordinary man, the founder of the Bavarian 
army, and the terror of the Protestants, used to boast before 
the battle of Leipsig, of three things — viz. That he had never 
known woman, never been drunk, and never lost a battle. 
" His strange and terrific aspect/' says Schiller, " was in unison 
with his character. Of low stature, thin, with hollow cheeks, a 
long nose, abroad and wrinkled forehead, large whiskers, and 
a pointed chin, he was generally attired in a Spanish doublet 
of green with slashed sleeves, with a small and peaked hat 
on his head, surmounted by a red feather, which hung down 
his back. His whole aspect recalled to recollection the Duke 
of Alba, the scourge of the Flemings, and his actions were 
by no means calculated to remove the impression." — Thirty 
Years' War, book ii. The author of L'Histoire de Gustave 
Adolphe gives a similar account of his dress and person, and 
adds, that the Marechal de Grammont, going to see him out 
of curiosity, met him at the head of his army, attired as 
described, and mounted on a little grey hackney, with one 
pistol only at his saddle-bow. " Lorsque le Marechal s'ap- 
procha pour lui faire la reverence, Tilly, croyant remarquer 



168 AUSTRIA, 

the present chateau, on the site of the old 
castle, and in the appellation of Tilly's 
Burg buried all recollection of the ancient 
Lords of Volkerstorf, whose once dreaded 
name is now only known to the peasant of 
Austria, as that of a little insignificant vil- 
lage in the neighbourhood of Ens. The 
last female of Tilly's family, the Countess 
Montfort, sold the Burg in 1730, to the 
Bavarian Baron von Weichs. 

Near Tilly's Burg is the old village of 
Kronau, known as early as the times of 
Thassillo, Duke of Bavaria, by the name 
of Kranesdorf, and on the left bank lie 
Hof-im-Schlag, Himberg, Auwinden, St. 
Georgen, and two or three other small 
places, remarkable only for their great an- 
tiquity. To the north of St. Georgen lies 

qu'il s'etonnoit de le voir dans cet equipage, lui dit, Monsieur, 
vous trouvez peut — etre mon habillement extraordinaire • 
j'avoue qu'il n'est pas tout a fait conforme a la mode de 
France, mais il est a mon gre, et cela me suffit. Je pense 
aussi que ma haquenee, et ce pistolet tout seul, vous surpren- 
nent pour le moins autant que mon accoutrement ; pour 
que vous n'ayiez pas mauvaise opinion du Comte de Tilly, 
a qui vous faites l'honneur de rendre une visite de curiosite, 
je vous dirai que j'ai gagne sept batailles decisives, sans 
avoir ete oblige de tirer une seule fois le pistolet que vous 
voyez la ; et mon petit cheval ne m'a jamais abandonne et 
n'a jamais balanc6 a faire son devoir." — p. 173. 



SPIELBERG. 169 

Frankenstein, where the miserable follow- 
ers of Laimbauer met their horrible fate. 

We now approached the old square 
tower of Spielberg, which, together with 
the steeples of the city of Ens, we had for 
some time seen in the distance, backed by 
the glittering and rugged line of the Styrian 
Alps. The ruin of Spielberg stands upon an 
Island near the right bank of the Danube, 
and just in the angle formed by the stream, 
which, having stretched away boldly to the 
south-east, here turns sharply off to the 
north, and washes the walls of the market 
town of Mauthausen, which is seen through 
a vista of islands at the extremity of a dis- 
tant point of land. Spielberg is admirably 
situated for a Raub-schloss, which was of 
course its original character. Otto and 
Eckbert von Spielberg were slain in Fre- 
derick Barbarossa's Italian expedition, 
A.D. 1156, and one Dittmar von Spielberg 
was present at the siege of Milan in 1158. 
In 1328, the family of Spielberg became 
extinct, the last of that name, Eberhard, 
having previously sold the city and castle of 
Ens to the Emperor Rudolph L, for six hun- 
dred marks. Reinprecht von Walsee pos- 



170 AUSTRIA. 

sessed Spielberg in 1329, and after passing 
through several hands, it finally formed part 
of the dower brought by the Countess of 
Weissenwolf to her husband in 1635. 
There is a small fall of the river here, 
which was at one time considered dan- 
gerous by the timid boatmen on the Da- 
nube, and has been confounded by some 
writers with the celebrated Strudel, pro- 
bably from one of the names given to it 
by the schiffers, viz. Der Saurussel*. It is 
also called by some, the Neubruch : small 
boats seldom venture through it, though a 
slight tossing would, I should imagine, be 
the only consequence. My companion and I 
often laughed, to think how a smart English 
six-oared cutter would astonish the natives 
here, who are certainly the clumsiest and 
most fearful navigators in Europe. Mau- 
thausen is said by the boatmen to be half 
of Aschach, which, carried away by an in- 
undation of the Danube, floated with the 
current down to this spot, — a strange tra- 
dition, which it is supposed has arisen from 
a fancied resemblance between the two 
towns. Howsoever it came, it stands in a 

* There being a place so called in the vicinity of the Strudel. 



ENS. 171 

very pleasant situation, directly opposite 
to the mouth of the Ens, and looking up 
that river upon the city of Ens, and the 
far-distant peaks and glaciers of the Sty- 
rian Alps. There was a bridge of boats 
here in 1809, but it was destroyed by the 
Bavarians. The neighbouring tower of 
Pragstein was occupied by the French in 
1742. Mauthausen suffered severely in 
the war between Rudolph and Matthias, 
and in the insurrections during the reign of 
Ferdinand. There is a woollen-stocking 
and a leather manufactory here, a dye- 
house of some celebrity, and a salt-market, 
from whence the greater part of Bohemia 
is supplied. 

The city of Ens is supposed to have 
been originally constructed out of the 
ruins of the Roman Lorch, (indifferently 
called Laureacum, Lavoriacum, Blaboria- 
cum, Loriacte,) the station of the second 
Italian legion, upon the site of which is 
still a little village of the name. Ammia- 
nus Marcellinus is the oldest historian 
who makes mention of Laureacum. Brus- 
chius, Hansiz, and Aventine assert, that 
Lorch was destroyed by Attila, on his 



172 AUSTRIA, 

march to Gaul ; but the biographer of St. 
Severin states, that two years after the 
passage of Attila, that holy person arrived 
at Lorch from the neighbourhood of Vi- 
enna, and found it flourishing, and a Chris- 
tian priest established therein. The Huns 
might have taken the left bank of the 
Danube, particularly as it was their nearest 
road. From an inscription on the walls of 
Ens, it would appear that two of the holy 
Evangelists themselves took the city under 
their especial protection, and converted 
the people to Christianity *. 

St. Peter himself is also said to have 
preached the gospel here in the year 49. 
In 454, Lorch is reported to have been 
preserved by the prayers of St. Severin, 
but was afterwards destroyed by the Bar- 
barians, according to his own prediction 
in 737, when Bibilo, bishop of Lorch, 
fled with his monks to Passau, as I have 

* Zu Enns St. Marx und Lucas lehrt 
Das volck zu Christi Glaub bekehrt. 

Hie ward versenkt St. Florian 

In D'Enns der edle Rittersmann, 
Maximilian da Bischoffwar, 
Mild gegen Armen immerdar ; 

Diess langt zu sondern Ruhm der Stadt 

Die Gott also bes;nadet hat." 



ENS. 173 

already mentioned in my notice of that 
city. The authentic history of Ens, how- 
ever, commences during the reign of 
Charlemagne, when that Emperor, aware 
of the importance of such a situation, 
pitched his tents at the mouth of the 
Ens, which formed at that time the line 
of demarcation between Bavaria and the 
lands of the Avars or Huns of Pannonia, 
that people having, during the sixth and 
seventh centuries, " spread their permanent 
dominion from the foot of the Alps to the 
sea-coast of the Euxine*." Here, on the 
5th of September, 791, he encamped, and, 
after fasting and praying for three days, 
proceeded on his expedition. The troops 
on the left bank of the Danube were com- 
manded by the Counts Thederich and Me- 
ginfried ; those on the right by the Em- 
peror in person ; and between the two hosts 
upon the river floated a third body, with 
provisions and necessaries for the whole 
army. In fifty-two days he penetrated 

* Gibbon, when speaking of this expedition, calls it " the 
triple effort of a French army that was poured into their 
(the Avars') country, by land and water, through the Car- 
pathian mountains, and along the plain of the Danube. " 
Decline and Fall, vol. ix. p. 184. 



174 AUSTRIA. 

to the river Rab, destroying the rings or 
wooden fortifications of the Avars, the first 
of which he found upon the Riederberge, 
by Tuln ; and would have carried his vic- 
torious arms still farther, had not a con- 
tagious disorder killed nearly all his horses. 
In 805, we still hear of Lorch, which, under 
the names of Lorahha and Loracha, is 
designated as a villa regia, and mention 
is made of its market-place and of an 
imperial judge, one Warner or Warnhar. 
After the death of Arnulph the Bastard, 
the Hungarians burst into the country, and 
devastated it beyond the Ens. The Bava- 
rians rallied, and beat them back; and 
Leopold, then Grenz-graf, or Count of 
the frontier, in the year 900, slew up- 
wards of 3000 of them on the left bank 
of the Danube. In the same year, as a 
stronger check to their inroads, he erected 
on the Ens a strong fortress* which he 
called Ensburg (Anasiburgum.) Buildings 
gradually rose around it ; and in proportion 
as the old Roman city of Laureacum de- 
clined, its rival prospered, till their names 

* This building is still standing in the north-east quarter of 
the city. It is now the property of Baron Rumeskirchen. 



ENS. 175 

became confounded, and that of the new 
city predominating, a small village, pro- 
bably on the actual site of the Roman 
town, alone retains the ancient appellation 
of Lorch. Richar, bishop of Passau, per- 
suaded Louis the Child, that the fortress 
of Ensburg stood upon ground belonging 
to the monastery of St. Florian, and it 
was consequently ceded by the sovereign 
to that establishment. The Hungarians 
snatched it from its holy possessors in 
907, when they defeated Louis, and slew 
the valiant markgraf Leopold, brother-in- 
law to Carloman, the bishops of Salzburg, 
Freysing, and Seben, three abbots, and 
nineteen counts. Leopold's son, Arnulf, 
defeated the Barbarians on the Inn, in 
912, and Conrad I. bribed them back over 
the frontiers in 918. After Arnulf 's death, 
the Barbarians again invaded Bavaria, but 
were ultimately, at the close of the tenth 
century, driven out of the country by the 
Markgraves, Leopold the Babenberger, and 
Burkhard, who carried the war into the 
enemy's territories as far as Krems and 
Mcilk. In a deed of the time of Otho II., 
Ensburg is still spoken of as distinct from 



176 AUSTRIA. 

Lorch or Lorach, and mention is made 
in the same deed of the church of St. 
Laurentius, situated without the walls of 
Lorch. Now there is a church of St. 
Laurence standing to this day, within 
ten minutes' walk of the city of Ens ; and 
though it was built as late as the time 
of Maximilian L, it is not improbable that 
it stands upon the site of the ancient edi- 
fice*. In the important deeds by which 
Ottocar VI. made over the steyermark to 
Leopold of Austria, Ens is called by one 
party a markt, and by the other a village ; 
and it is asserted by some writers that 
Ens was first made a fortified town by 
Leopold, who built its walls with the 
ransom of Richard Cceur de Lion ! f How- 
ever this may be, and if true, it is a very 

* In the Niebelunglied, which was compiled about this 
period, we find Ens mentioned, by its present name, as one 
of the places visited by Chrimhilt, on her journey into Hun- 
gary. 

" Da sie uber dieTraun kamen, bey Ense auf das field." 

t According to an old German writer quoted by Schultes, 
Ens was a walled city as early as the year 900, and already 
of some consequence. " Bavari citissime in id ipsum tempus 
(a.d. 900) pro tuitioni illorum regni validissimam urbem in 
littore Anesi fluminis muro obposuerunt." But, in this case, 
why is it called a village by Leopold, in the twelfth cen- 
tury? 



ENS. 177 

interesting circumstance, Ens certainly 
dates its existence as a city from some- 
where about this period, as, at the close 
of the twelfth century, the Enser-fair was 
almost as much celebrated in Germany 
as that of Leipzig is at present. Rudolph 
of Hapsburg received the keys of Ens 
from the hands of a lord of Sumerau, and 
afterwards bought the city, for six hundred 
marks, of Eberhard von Spielberg. 

Duke Albert the Lame concluded here, 
in 1336, the peace with John, king of 
Bohemia, which gave Carinthia to Austria, 
and the Tyrol to Charles, the son of that 
monarch, afterwards Charles IV. The vic- 
torious army of Matthias Corvinus, king of 
Hungary, penetrated as far as Ens during 
the war with the Emperor Frederick III., 
and in 1532, the Turks, who had burst into 
Hungary and Austria, headed by the Sultan 
himself, pushed forward some troops to the 
walls of this city, between whom and the 
burghers a desperate conflict took place 
upon the bridge. In the insurrections of 
1624, Stephen Fadinger summoned the 
town, and another rebel-chief, named 

N 



178 AUSTRIA. 

Wurm, cannonaded it, but it stood out 
against both till relieved by Colonel Lobel, 
who defeated the peasants, and burned their 
camp. In 1683, while Cara Mustaphalay 
before Vienna, several flying parties of 
the Turks scoured the country around 
Ens, and penetrated nearly to Linz. On the 
4th of May, 1809, Napoleon had his head- 
quarters here, and received a deputation 
from the townspeople of Mauthausen, 
which place he had threatened with bom- 
bardment. 

In the centre of the Platz stands a tall 
bell or clock tower built by Maximilian I. 
Some years ago a rib-bone was shown in 
it as that of a giant. It had most pro- 
bably formed part of the stock in trade of 
an elephant, and was thought sufficiently 
curious to be removed to Cuvier's museum 
l a Paris. Many Roman antiquities have 
been discovered in Ens and its vicinity; 
some gold coins of the Emperor Probus, 
several marble busts, and inscribed stones. 
Some of the latter are still to be seen in 
the old Burg of Enseck. 

Two large stone coffins without any 



ENS. 179 

inscription were dug out of the Aich- 
berg, a short distance from the town, in 
1808. Some monumental busts were also 
found, but they had been cut out of very 
bad sandstone, and were much injured by 
time. 



N 2 



180 



CHAPTER VI. 

Nieder-Walsee — Castles of Clam and Kreuzen — Ardagger — 
Grein — The Strudel and the Wirbel — Mistakes of various 
Authors concerning them — St. Nikola — Sarblingstein— 
Freystein — Hirschau — The Isper — BOsenbeug — Story of 
Bishop Bruno and the Lady Richlita — Ips — Gottsdorf. 

After washing the walls of Ens, the 
river from which it takes its name hurries 
through several channels, into the Danube. 
In the time of Charlemagne it divided Ba- 
varia from the lands of the Avars or Huns 
of Pannonia. 

— " Ad fluvium venit Anasum 

Qui medius Bajvarios sejunxit et Humms." 

Saxo Poeta. T. II. p. 155. 

From the point of its confluence with 
the Danube, the latter is again studded 
with islands, sandbanks and sunken rocks 
as far as Nieder-Walsee ; and the history of 
the small market towns and villages upon 
its flat banks, is as uninteresting as their 
appearance. On the left, below the village 
of Nieder-Sebing, the little river Aust, 
formerly the boundary between the Slavi 
and the Bohemians, flows round an island, 
formed in its mouth, into the Danube ; and 



NIEDER-WALSEE. 181 

on the right, above the rippling Erla-bach, 
stands Erla-Kloster, a convent founded by- 
Otto of Machland in the tenth century, 
and suppressed by the Emperor Joseph II. 
Our old steersman had been for some time 
complaining of illness, and now lay groan- 
ing upon some straw, having given up the 
paddle, by which the boat was steered, to 
the care of a lad who had joined us at 
Linz in the place of his son, an exchange 
which we had protested against at the 
time, as it was arranged at Ratisbon, that 
the same people should row us the whole 
way to Vienna, and the father and son were 
evidently the only persons who knew any- 
thing about the navigation of the river. 
The old man growing apparently worse 
every moment, we looked rather anxiously 
about for a place where we could land, 
and obtain some assistance, but none pre- 
sented itself before our arrival, in sight of 
Nieder-Walsee ; and therefore, although 
a mere group of huts, above which arose 
the old wall and curious tower of the 
Schloss, promised little in the way of ac- 
commodation, we determined to land there, 
and see what could be done to set our 



182 AUSTRIA. 

poor pilot on his legs again. Nieder- 
Walsee stands perched upon a rocky point 
of land, on the right bank of the Danube, 
and behind it the mountains again rear their 
forest-clothed heads. Upon the summit of 
one of the nearest stands Strengberg, a 
post station, through which the high road 
runs to Vienna, and from whence we en- 
joyed a splendid view of the Danube on 
our return by land to Linz. The castle 
of Nieder-Walsee was built by the same 
Eberhard, who erected Ober-Walsee on 
the Klausberg near Aschach, and stands 
on the site of the old castle of Sumerau. 
After the death of Reinprecht von Walsee 
in 1483, the castle was bought and sold, 
pledged and redeemed, by various families, 
till, in the Seven Years' war, it became 
the property of the famous Field-marshal 
Daun, from one of whose descendants it 
was bought in 1810, by Count Wimpfer. 
A strong current runs round the point, and 
few boats, except those belonging to the 
inhabitants, approach the shore at this 
place, as there is considerable difficulty in 
getting back into the main stream, out of 
which one is aground every two minutes 



NIEDER-WALSEE. 183 

upon the gravelly shoals that rise in all direc- 
tions in this part of the Danube, and can 
only be avoided by keeping in the middle 
of what the boatmen call the Graben (the 
trench or channel) of the river. Not aware, 
however, of this circumstance, and anxious 
to alleviate the sufferings of the old 
steersman, we directed his locum tenens to 
run into the shore, a business that was 
speedily effected, for we had no sooner 
come within the influence of the current, 
than round went the head of the boat, and 
in a few seconds we were brushing the 
bushes that hung over the steep bank, and 
hurried along it far beyond the proper 
landing-place. Two unfortunate discove- 
ries were made together. The offer of a 
dram to the steersman cleared up the mys- 
tery of his malady. He had had a few too 
many already, and had laid down in the 
boat for the most excellent of all reasons, 
his inability to stand; our second discovery 
was equally annoying. We had got out 
of the stream, and the only person who 
was capable of getting us cleverly back 
into it was hors de combat. The rest of 
the crew knew as little about the matter 



184 AUSTRIA. 

as ourselves. As soon as we had escaped 
one current we found ourselves in the power 
of another, and with such force was the 
heavy, flat-bottomed punt we were in 
driven upon the shoals, that, with all the 
strength we could muster amongst us, we 
were sometimes ten minutes or a quarter 
of an hour before we could get her afloat 
again ; and when we had at last effected it, 
round she spun, and there was her stern as 
fast as a church within a dozen yards of 
the spot where her head had been similarly 
situated two minutes before. At least an 
hour and a half was lost in this amusing 
exercise, during which we had the grati- 
fication of seeing the regular packet-boat 
that we had gotten the start of at Aschach, 
pass us far to the left, and, steering clear of 
all obstacles, vanish into the valley which 
opened between the wooded mountains in 
the distance. At last, when our strength, 
our patience, and the reproaches we 
poured rather unceremoniously on our 
drunken steersman were just exhausted, 
and we had begun to calculate upon the 
probability of passing the afternoon and 
evening at least upon the shoals, we found 



CLAM, 185 

ourselves by accident, but to our unspeak- 
able satisfaction, once more impelled for- 
wards by a gentle and properly behaved 
current, which promised, in the course of 
time, to lead us into the stream we had in 
evil hour deserted. 

On the left bank of the Danube below 
Nieder-Walsee, stand the village of Saxen, 
and the Castles of Clam and Kreuzen. 
Saxen is mentioned as early as 823, in 
which year Louis the Debonair gave to 
Reginhard, Bishop of Passau, two churches 
at " Saxina in terra Hunnorum." The 
towers of Clam rise above a forest of pines 
a little behind Saxen. It was anciently 
the seat of the Lords of Machland. The 
brother of Otto of Machland, who founded 
the kloster of Baumgartenberg, was the 
first of the family who signed himself 
" Chlamme/' A. D.l 156. On the extinc- 
tion of the family of Machland, this Burg 
came to the Preuschenks, and in 1487, 
the troops of Matthias Corvinus besieged 
and took it. The family of Perger bought 
it in 1524, enlarged it in 1636, and took the 
title of Barons and afterwards of Counts of 
Clamm. The great white castle of Kreu- 



186 AUSTRIA. 

zen, far away upon the summit of a hill to 
the north-west, also belonged to the Lords 
of Machland, and in the twelfth century 
was called Croucen and Chrutzen. In 1334, 
it came to the celebrated Volkerstorfs. 
The Counts of Meggar bought it in 1523; 
and when the Turks were devastating 
Upper Austria in 1526. its walls were filled 
with fugitives of all ranks and ages. In 
1701, it was bought by a Count Cavariani, 
who sold it again almost immediately to 
the Count of Salburg. The market-town 
of Ardagger, upon the right bank, was given 
by Charlemagne to the bishopric of Pas- 
sau. The Emperor Conrad III., when set- 
ting out on his unfortunate crusade, landed 
here on the 29th of May, 1 147, to make the 
necessary preparation for passing with his 
fleet the then much-dreaded Strudel and 
Wirbel. Seventy thousand knights, com- 
pletely armed, an equal number of foot- 
soldiers, a troop of females " in the armour 
and attitude of men," the chief of whom, 
from her gilt spurs and buskins, obtained 
the epithet of " The golden-footed dame*", 

* Gibbon. — William of Tyre and Matthew Paris reckon se- 
venty thousand loricati in each of the armies led by Conrad 



GREIN. 187 

passed down the Danube under the ban- 
ners of Conrad. Two years afterwards, a 
few boats, principally filled with priests 
who had followed the army, returned to 
these shores ; all that treachery, battle, 
and disease had left of the mighty host that 
had so lately marched in full confidence to 
the conquest of Asia ! 

A sudden bend of the river near this 
spot, brought us again amongst the moun- 
tains, and in a moment we seemed shut out 
from the world by the craggy barriers that 
rose on each side of us, — the counterparts 
of those I have attempted to describe in the 
wild gorge of the Schlagen. After passing 
a few lonely huts, perched here and there 
amongst the masses of rock and forest, the 
chateau and town of Grein started at once 
into view, on turning a sharp and craggy 
point, cradled amongst the precipices which, 
opening behind the town, form a vista, ter- 
minated by the castle of Kreuzen on its 

and the French king", Louis VII. The light-armed troops, 
the peasant infantry, the women and children, and the priests 
and monks, swelled this swarm to an inconceivable extent. 
" It is affirmed by the Greeks and Latins, that in the passage 
of a strait or river, the Byzantine agents, after a tale of 
nine hundred thousand, desisted from the endless and formi- 
dable computation." — Decline and Fall, vol. xi. p. 107. 



188 AUSTRIA. 

distant hill. Grein is one of the poorest 
and smallest towns in Upper Austria, and 
the chateau is a large, gloomy building, 
originally built by Heinrich von Chreine, 
in the twelfth century. Frederick the 
Handsome, Duke of Austria, pledged Grein 
for five hundred and sixty-two silver 
pfennige, to Albert von Volkerstorf, May 
14th, 1308. The valiant Bernhard von 
Scherffenberg beat the Bohemians here 
twice, during the fifteenth century ; at the 
close of which it was bought of the Em- 
peror Maximilian by one of the family of 
Prueschenk. Heinrich von Prueschenk re- 
built the chateau, and from this circum- 
stance it received the name of Heinrichs- 
burg. 

The traveller now approaches the most 
extraordinary scene on the long Danube, 
from its source in the Black Forest, to its 
mouth in the Black Sea. As soon as a 
bend of the river has shut out the view of 
Grein and its chateau, a mass of rock and 
castle, scarcely distinguishable from each 
other, appears to rise in the middle of the 
stream before you. The flood roars and 
rushes round each side of it; and ere you 



THE STRUDEL AND THE WIRBEL. 189 

can perceive which way the boat will take, 
it dashes down a slight fall to the left, 
struggles awhile with the waves, and then 
sweeps round between two crags, on which 
are the fragments of old square towers, 
with crucifixes planted before them. It 
has scarcely righted itself from this first 
shock, when it is borne rapidly forward to- 
wards an immense block of stone, on which 
stands a third tower, till now hidden by the 
others, and having at its foot a dangerous 
eddy. The boat flashes like lightning 
through the tossing waves, within a few 
feet of the vortex, and comes immediately 
into still water, leaving the passenger who 
beholds this scene for the first time, mute 
with wonder and admiration. These are 
the Scylla and Charybdis of the Danube, 
the celebrated Strudel and Wirbel. The 
passage is made in little more than the 
time it takes to read the above brief de- 
scription, and I could scarcely scratch down 
the outlines of these curious crags and 
ruins, before I was whirled to some dis- 
tance beyond them. I must beg my reader, 
however, to return with me, and repass 
them more leisurely, than the impatient 



190 AUSTRIA. 

stream would permit us. The Danube, 
checked in its northern course at Grein, 
and driven unwillingly towards the east, 
vents its fury against the opposing crags 
on the left bank, and having broken down 
part of the barrier, rides over the ruins in 
triumph, forming what is called, by the 
boatmen, the Grein-Schwall. After this 
ebullition of anger, the stream appears to 
sink into sullen indifference, and slowly and 
silently pursues its way through a gloomy 
gorge of precipices, that rise higher and 
higher on each side of it, till it arrives 
within a few yards of the Worthinsel, an 
island, about four hundred fathoms long, 
and two hundred broad, surrounded by 
sand-banks on all sides except the north, 
where a perpendicular crag starts up, bear- 
ing on its crest the ruins of the Wother- 
Schloss, or Castle of Werfenstein *. From 

* This little square tower, which is generally called, from its 
situation, the Worther-Schloss, is described in several topo- 
graphical works indifferently under the name of the Castle of 
Werfenstein, and the Castle of Struden. But it being clearly 
apparent from various ancient documents that the Castles of 
Werfenstein and Struden were two distinct buildings, Herr 
Schultes has, I think, with good reason, designated this the 
ruin of Werfenstein, and that which overhangs the little 
markt of Struden, on the left bank of the river, the Castle of 
Struden. 



THE STRUDEL AND THE WIRBEL. 191 

this island to the rocky shores of the Da- 
nube, which here open and form a kind of 
circle around it, run several chains of crags 
beneath the water, some indeed peering 
above it, over and through which the 
stream rushes right and left, with consi- 
derable violence and uproar. The right 
arm is called the Hossgang, and is only 
passable when the water is very high, by 
the smallest and lightest craft. The main 
body hurries round the northern or left side 
of the island, and boiling over the first 
chain of rocks, falls through three separate 
channels, a depth of three feet in a dis- 
tance of four hundred and eighty. This 
fall is called the Strudel; but the boatmen 
have a name for each channel, and call 
that one in particular the Strudel which is 
nearest to the north shore of the island: 
the centre channel is called the Wildriss ; 
and the third, nearest the main bank, the 
Waldwasser*. The three principal crags 

* The Waldwasser and the Wildriss, like the Hossgang, 
are never passable but when the water is very high, and 
then only by the lightest and smallest craft. The Strudel, 
though most studded with rocks, is the best, and con- 
sequently the general passage for all boats and rafts, either 
ascending or descending, and has therefore given its name 
to the whole fall. 



192 



AUSTRIA. 



which, standing in the entrance of these 
three channels, form part of the bank or 
bar, over which the water falls into them, 
have also their particular names; that in 
the entrance to the Strudel is called the 
Bomben-Gehakel, or Buma-G'hachelt ; the 
next, the Wildriss-Gehakel, and the third, 
the Wald-Gehakel, — the term Gehakel or 
G'hachelt distinguishing the crags, the 
points of which generally appear above 
the surface, from those which lie beneath 
it, and which are called Kogeln or Kugeln. 
There are nearly a dozen of these Kogeln 
in the passage of the Strudel, the principal 
of which are named the Marchkugel, the 
Wolfskugel, and the Maisenkugel ; and 
one, from its particular formation, the 
Dreyspitze. These lie in various direc- 
tions, in the entrance and middle of the 
channels. At the outlet of the Wildriss 
there is a reef of rock called the Ross, the 
principal crag in which is named the Ross- 
kopf ; another reef, called the Felsenge- 
lander, lies at the end of the Waldwasser, 
beside which are two rocks called the 
Keller and the Hute. Some of these, at 
low water, are not more than two feet 



THE STRUDEL. 193 

beneath the surface, and impassable, of 
course, by a boat of any size or burden. 

It may easily be supposed that a stream 
like the Danube does not flow very quietly 
over so rugged a bed, and though consi- 
derable masses of rock have been blown 
up, and the channels otherwise much 
widened and deepened within the last fifty 
years, there are still obstacles enough to 
fret and agitate the river to a degree which 
gives at least an appearance of danger to 
the passage, if even there be not a little 
in reality. At the end of the fall, or Stru- 
del, on the left, and of the Hossgang on 
the right, the rocky shores again approach 
each other, and the river, uniting its cur- 
rents, sweeps rapidly round to the north 
beneath a jutting crag, upon which stands 
the ruins of the castle of Struden, and 
washes the walls of the little town of the 
same name. The castle belonged an- 
ciently to the lords of Machland, and after 
them to the Archdukes of Austria. In 
1413, the Archdukes Leopold and Ernest 
gave the " Feste haus ze Struden" to one 
Hans Greisenecker, who already possessed 
the Castle of Werfenstein, for " a considera- 



194 



AUSTRIA, 



tion;" and in 1493, the brothers Heinrich 
and Sigmund Prueschenk bought both cas- 
tles from the House of Austria, to which 
they had reverted. 

About a thousand yards below Struden, 
but near the right bank of the river, rises 
the large block of stone called the Haus- 
stein, upon which are the ruins of the 
tower of the same name ; round the 
southern side of this block struggles a 
small arm of the Danube, called the Lueg, 
and navigable like the Hossgang, when 
the water is very high, by small boats 
only. On the northern side is the cele- 
brated whirlpool (Der Wirbel), formed 
most probably by the violence with which 
the two currents of the Danube are hurled 
against each other on leaving the Worth - 
insel, and again checked and divided by 
the Hausstein. This whirlpool measures 
sometimes nearly fifty feet in diameter ; 
but when we passed it, it did not, I should 
think, exceed fifteen. In the centre the 
water forms a perfect funnel, and a large 
branch of fir was whirling round and round 
in it, as if some invisible hand were stirring 
the natural cauldron, and making it "boil 



THE WIRBEL. 195 

and bubble." All sorts of extravagant sto- 
ries have of course been circulated respect- 
ing this dreaded vortex, which is gravely 
affirmed by some of the old writers to have 
no bottom. Munster, in his Kosmographie, 
printed at Basle in 1567, says, " They 
have often sounded in this place, but the 
abyss is so deep that they can touch no 
ground. It is bottomless. What falls 
therein, remains under and never comes 
up again.' 5 — b. III. sam. 965. This writer 
also confounds the Strudel with the 
Wirbel.* 

Father Kircher vows there is a hole 
underneath the Wirbel, which sucks in 
the waters of the Danube, and a subter- 



* A singular ignorance of the true situation of these 
famous places is displayed by most of the German writers. 
Berckenmayer, in his Curiosen Antiquarius, carries the Wirbel 
below the town of Krems, and he is followed in his error by 
Strahlenberg, in his Beschreibung des Russichen Reiches, and 
Hiibner, in his Vollstandigen Geographic, who speak of 
the Wirbel as a waterfall near Krems. From Hiibner this 
mistake has been copied into several geographical works, 
and amongst others into the old Zeitung's Lexicon ; and 
many of the modern German, and even some English tra- 
vellers speak of the Strudel and Wirbel as one and the same 
thing, a confusion which nothing but utter carelessness 
could have created ; the first being distinctly a fall, and the 
second an eddy, each remarkable in itself, and at some little 
distance from the other. 

O 2 



196 AUSTRIA. 

ranean channel connected with it, by which 
the said water is conveyed into Hungary, 
where it rises again, and forms the Platten- 
see or Lake of Balaton ! Others claim the 
same origin for the Lake of Neusiedle*, 
and to clinch the fable, which is still reve- 
rently believed by the Hungarians, assert, 
that a travelling cooper, who lost some of 
his tools in the Wirbel, absolutely found 
them again floating on the surface of the 
Neusiedler-see. 

Happelius, as in support of this hypo- 
thesis, says, " it is well known that the 
Danube loses a considerable quantity of 
its waters in the Wirbel, so that its flood 
is of much less consequence from that spot 
down to Vienna/' a falsehood which a glance 
at the river is capable at once of refuting. 

There can be no doubt that, in earlier 
ages, there must have been considerable 
danger in passing these falls and eddies ; 

* " Inter alios (vortices) famosus ille est, qui aspicitur sub 
Lincio. Creditur vulgo origo esse lacus Neusidel in Him- 
garia Cis-Rahabanti. Aspicitur etiam alter sed hoc minor, 
prope pagum Almas infra Commaronium, qui perhibetur esse 
origo lacus Balaton." — Marsigli Danubiani illustr. See also 
Herbinius de, Cataract. Fluv., and Kircher's Mundus subter- 
raneus. 



THE WIRBEL. 197 

and even now, when the water is low, 
an inexperienced or careless steersman 
might easily get the bottom of his boat 
knocked out in the Strudel, or its side 
staved in by the crags of the Hausstein, 
under either of which circumstances the 
passengers would stand a very fair chance 
of being drowned. I cannot help thinking 
our own rather a narrow escape, for my 
readers will recollect that, on leaving Nie- 
der-Walsee, our worthy pilot was lying 
dead drunk in the stern of the boat. To 
our utter astonishment, however, upon 
approaching the Grein-Schwall, he ma- 
naged to get upon his legs, and, as if so- 
bered for the moment by a sudden sense of 
his own situation, snatched the rudder from 
the boy (who in a few minutes would cer- 
tainly have had us upon the rocks), steered 
us manfully and cleverly through the Stru- 
del and Wirbel, and then flung himself 
down again on his straw as drunk and in- 
sensible as before. Had we been aware 
of the vicinity of these places, we should 
certainly have taken a pilot on board at 
Ardagger, but we had no idea we were so 
near them, and the poor fellows who rowed 



198 . AUSTRIA. 

us were altogether ignorant of the river, 
and merely working their way to Vienna. 
The passage was, however, made before we 
had time to think of our danger, almost in- 
deed before we knew where we were ; and 
absorbed in contemplation of the romantic 
beauty of the scene, nothing short of 
absolute foundering could, I believe, have 
distracted our attention from it. Riesbeck, 
after a brief description of this spot, says, 
" a great variety of circumstances concur 
to excite an idea of danger in both these 
parts of the Danube. Low mechanics are 
fond of speaking of them, and magnifying 
the danger, that they may increase their 
own importance in having gone through it. 
Others, more simple, who come to the place 
with strong conceits of what they are to 
meet with there, are so struck with the 
wildness of the prospect, and the roaring 
of the water, that they begin to quake and 
tremble before they have seen any thing. 
But the masters of the vessels are those who 
most effectually keep up the imposition. 
They make the passage a pretence for raising 
the price of the freight, and when you are 
past them the steersman goes round with 



THE WIRBEL. 199 

his hat in his hand to collect money from 
the passengers as a reward for having con- 
ducted them safely through such perilous 
spots. When our master (who yet very 
well knew how much it was for his interest 
to keep up the credit of his monsters) saw 
how little attention I paid to them, he 
assured me in confidence that during the 
twenty years he had sailed the Danube, he 
had not heard of a single accident," This 
account was written in 1780, and yet only 
three years before, (on the 31st of October 
1777,) two vessels struck, one on the Wolfs- 
Kugel, and the other on the Maisenkugel, 
and went to pieces. In 1749, a SehifF- 
meister of Passau, named Freidenberger, 
perished with his daughter in the whirlpool, 
and another SchifFmeister, Martin Beyerl, 
of Vienna, was drowned in it, at the com- 
mencement of the century. 

The danger has certainly, however, been 
much diminished by the exertions of the 
Austrian government, which, besides having 
considerably widened and deepened the 
channels of the Strudel and Hossgang, by 
blowing up the rocks and removing the 
sand, has instituted sundry prudent regu- 



200 AUSTRIA 

lations respecting the navigation of this 
part of the Danube. All boats ascending 
the river when the water is only of a cer- 
tain height, are obliged to stop at the little 
town of Struden till information is sent to 
Grein and the Sauriissel, at both which 
places a flag is immediately hoisted to 
give notice to any vessels descending the 
stream, that one is coming up through the 
Strudel, and so prevent the collision that 
would be likely to take place should they 
attempt to pass it in contrary directions at 
the same time, the descending vessel being 
compelled, under a heavy penalty, to lay 
to, above the rock called the Rabenstein, 
till the other has passed. Also when the 
water is of a sufficient height to enable 
the ascending boats to pass through the 
southern channels of the Lueg and the 
Hossgang, the horses keep the towing- 
path on the right bank from Ips to Wies- 
sen, a small place facing Grein. But when 
the water is low, the horses are ferried 
three times across the river in the short 
distance of 1200 yards; first below the 
Wirbel, from the right bank over to the 
left ; then from the town of Struden to the 



THE WIRBEL, 201 

Worthinsel ; and lastly, from the western 
end of that island over the Hbssgang, back 
again to the right bank, under the Raben- 
stein. 

As soon as you have passed the Wirbel, 
a boat puts off from the little town of St. 
Nikola on the left bank, and paddling along- 
side, a man holds out a box with the figure 
of the saint in it for the " voluntary con- 
tributions" of the passengers, who are ex- 
pected to drop a few kreutzers in acknow- 
ledgment of the protection that has been 
so kindly afforded them by his saintship. 
On board the regular passage-boat, money 
is also collected by the steersman as Ries- 
beck describes, and another ceremony like- 
wise takes place, something similar to that 
customary on board a ship when passing 
the line. The steersman goes round with 
the wooden scoop or shovel, with which 
they wet the ropes that bind the paddles 
to their uprights, filled with water ; and 
those who have never before passed through 
the Strudel and the Wirbel must either 
pay or be well soused with the ele- 
ment, the perils of which they have just 
escaped. 



202 



AUSTRIA. 



In 1144, Beatrix of Klamm founded an 
hospital at St. Nikola for travellers on the 
Danube, which she so richly endowed, that 
Albert of Austria, two hundred years later, 
found it only necessary to provide for the 
spiritual welfare of its visitants, and there- 
fore established a daily mass with the 
money collected on the river from Ardagger 
to Ips, in the manner above mentioned. 

There were formerly two other towers 
or fortresses in the neighbourhood ; the 
ruins of one still exist on the northern 
bank of the river, nearly facing the Wirbel, 
on the rock called the Langen-Stein. The 
other was, as early as the twelfth century, 
spoken of as " the ruined castle of the 
noble Lady Helchin," and not a fragment 
of it is now remaining. An old story, which 
I shall shortly have occasion to transcribe, 
speaks of the tower called " Der Teufels- 
thurm," (the Devil's Tower) but whether 
either of the four still standing have a 
claim to that respectable appellation or no, 
is a question at present undecided. It is 
accorded by some writers to the Castle of 
Werfenstein. 
The gorge through which the river now 



SARBLINGSTEIN. 203 

flows calmly and silently as it had never 
been ruffled, is of the same description as 
that from Hayenbach to Neuhaus, but the 
mountains that line its shores are still 
higher, and often 

" Their lofty crests are capped with snow, 
While blossoms deck the vale below." 

So deep is the water, and so steady the 
stream, that boats of any burden may drift 
down it in the darkest night with perfect 
safety. We now floated past the old 
round tower of Sarblingstein, standing on a 
pedestal of granite, above a little group 
of houses, beside which the rivulet of 
Sarbling brawls through a woody ravine 
over the rocky bank into the Danube. 
The tower is all that remains of a fortress 
built by the Monks of Waldhausen in 1538, 
with the permission of the Emperor Ferdi- 
nand, upon the express condition that it 
should be considered an asylum for the in- 
habitants of the neighbourhood in case of 
invasion or civil war. Hirschau, close under 
Sarblingstein, is the last hamlet in Upper 
Austria* or Austria on the Ens. Opposite 
it on the right bank are the scarcely vi- 
sible remains of the castle of Hirschau, 



204 AUSTRIA. 

and further east, upon the mountain top, lie 
the extensive ruins of Freystein, formerly 
one of the largest and strongest castles in 
Austria. At the close of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, it belonged to the famous Reinprecht 
von Walsee, and after him to the families of 
Preuschenk and Zinzendorf. The Prince 
of Starrhemberg also once possessed it. 
Near this spot two valleys open to the 
south-west, and from thence the granite is 
brought with which the streets of Vienna 
are paved. The labourers employed to 
blast the rocks and work the quarries 
live close by in the little village of Dorfel ; 
beside which the rivulet Isper, the Hys- 
pere of the middle ages, rippling through a 
narrow valley, forms the line of boundary 
northward between Upper and Lower 
Austria. 

The sun went down and the mountains 
seemed to sink with it, or melt into the 
mists that crept around them. The valley 
of the Danube widened, — a large building 
rose on the left bank, upon the end of 
a rocky promontory, throwing a deeper 
gloom over the darkening waters, its lofty 
tower piercing through the low vapours 



BOSENBEUG. 205 

and soaring into the clear, star-spangled 
sky above them — it was Schloss Bosen- 
beug, the summer residence of the Emperor, 
and one of the oldest buildings in Lower 
Austria, though the alterations made during 
the last century by its then possessors, the 
Herren von Hoyos, have taken much from 
the antique appearance of its exterior*. 
Nearly facing it on the right bank stood 
the small chateau of Donaudorf, and be- 
yond these two buildings, the river opened 
to the right and left, in the same manner 
that it did below Neuhaus. A multitude 
of lights glimmering amidst a black mass 
of houses and huts, and reflected in long 
trembling lines upon the water, pointed 
out to us the town of Ips, similarly situated 
to that of Aschach. The Castle of Bosen- 
beug or Persenbeug belonged in the ninth 
century to that Count Engelschalk who 
carried off the daughter of Arnulph the 
Bastard, and afterwards lost his eyes and 
his estates by the sentence of the Diet at 
Ratisbon, as has been already described in 

* Vide Frontispiece. The view was taken from a hill on 
the right bank of the river, on our return by land from 
Vienna. 



206 



AUSTRIA. 



the notice of Ebelsberg near Linz. Nearly 
all the confiscated property of Engelschalk 
was given by Arnulph to the monks of 
Kremsmunster ; but, curiously enough, this 
Castle of Bosenbeug, by a train of circum- 
stances, eluded for a long time the clutches 
of « holy mother Church/' who laboured 
indefatigably, "by hook or by crook/' to 
get it into her possession. How it escaped 
her grasp in the ninth century is not clear, 
but it certainly did do so, and became the 
property of the valiant Bavarian Sieghart 
von Sempt, to whom probably it was given 
as a stronghold, that would enable him 
better to defend the duchy against the 
inroads of the Hungarians. Sieghart fell 
gloriously in the execution of his trust, 
A.D. 907, in the terrible battle fought be- 
tween Theben and Haimburg. To work 
of course went the monks, and at length 
so wrought upon the mind of one of his 
weak descendants, Albert III., that he be- 
queathed to them at his death " the strong 
castle of Bosenbeug," in despite of the en- 
treaties of his wife Richlinde, or Richlita, 
who strove to preserve it to the next male 
heir, her nephew Welf von Altorf. The 



BOSENBEUG. 207 

breath was scarcely out of the body of 
Albert, when a desperate struggle ensued 
between his widow and the monks of Ebers- 
berg. The lady had taken up her residence 
in the castle, which she claimed as part of 
her jointure, with reversion to her nephew 
Welf, and refused to acknowledge the title 
of the church, which she contended had 
been fraudulently acquired. In the midst 
of this dispute, a circumstance took place 
which shall be related as nearly as pos- 
sible in the words of the old chronicler 
Aventine. " The Emperor" (Henry III. 
surnamed the Black) " departed from Re- 
gensburg and came by water to Passau : 
there he tarried during the Passion week, 
and till the holy feast of the Ascension. 
The next day after which he again took 
water, and journeyed into Lower Bavaria, 
as Austria was then called. There is a 
town in Austria by name Grein ; near this 
town is a perilous place in the Danube, 
called the Strudel by Stockerau # . There 
doth one hear the water rushing far and 

* Here is another error respecting the Strudel. Stockerau 
is nearly two days journey from it, in the neighbourhood of 
Vienna. 



208 AUSTRIA. 

wide, so falls it over the rocks with a great 
foam, which is very dangerous to pass 
through, and brings the vessel into a whirl- 
pool, rolling round about. The Emperor 
Henry went down through the Strudel ; in 
another vessel was Bruno, bishop of Wurtz- 
burg, the Emperor's kinsman ; and as the 
bishop also was passing through the Stru- 
del, there sat upon a rock that projected 
out of the water, a man blacker than a 
Moor, of a horrible aspect, terrible to all 
who beheld it, who cried out and said to 
bishop Bruno, ' Hear ! hear ! bishop ! I 
am thine evil spirit! thou art mine own, 
go where thou wilt, thou shalt be mine, 
yet now I will do nought to thee, but 
soon shalt thou see me again *.* All 
who heard this were terrified. The bishop 
crossed and blessed himself, said a few 
prayers, and the spirit vanished. This 
rock is shewn to this day ; upon it is built 



Brutus. 


Speak to me what thou art? 


Ghost. 


Thy evil spirit, Brutus. 


Brutus. 


Why com'st thou? 


Ghost. 


To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. 


Brutus, 


Well, 




Then I shall see thee again ? 


Ghost. 


Ay % at Philippi ! " 




Julius Caesar, Act iv. Scene 3, 



BOSENBEUG, 209 

a small tower all of stone, without any 
wood : it has no roof, and is called the 
Devil's Tower. Not far from thence, some 
two miles journey, the Emperor and his 
people landed, purposing to pass the night 
in a town called Posenbeiss, belonging to 
the Lady Richlita, widow of the Count 
Adalbero von Ebersberg. She received 
the Emperor joyfully; invited him to a 
banquet, and prayed him, besides, that he 
would bestow the town of Posenbeiss and 
other surrounding places (that her husband 
had possessed and governed) on her bro- 
ther's son, Welforic III. The Emperor 
entered the banquet-room, and standing 
near Bishop Bruno, Count Aleman von 
Ebersberg and the Lady Richlita, gave the 
countess his right hand and granted her 
prayer. At that moment the floor of the 
apartment fell in, and the Emperor fell 
through into the bathing-chamber below 
it, without sustaining any injury, as did also 
Count Aleman, and the Lady Richlita, but 
the bishop fell on the edge of the bathing- 
tub, brokehis ribs,and died a few days after- 
wards." Other writers say, that the Count 
and the Lady Richlita both died from the 



210 AUSTRIA. 

hurts they received ; but be that as it may, 
the right heir was, according to the Em- 
peror's promise, established at Bosenbeug, 
A.D. 1045, in spite of the intrigues and 
plots of the monks, whose agents had 
frightened and killed the poor bishop, he 
having, as it appears, spoken a good word 
for the lady, who is supposed also to have 
fallen a victim to the same scandalous trick, 
copied most likely from a similar tragical 
farce played off by the celebrated St. Dun- 
stan, about seventy years before, in Eng- 
land. Some time afterwards the monks re- 
newed their claim in applications to the 
Markgraves Albert I. and Leopold III., but 
without success, the latter, in 1096, giving 
the castle to his youngest daughter, Rich- 
ardis. Thus foiled, they went on a new 
tack, and managed to persuade the husband 
of this Princess, Count Stephaning, to join 
the first crusade, in the hope that he would 
never return, and that Bosenbeug would at 
length become their property. Half of the 
charitable wish was granted. 

" Audiit, et voti Phoebus succedere partem 
Mente dedit: partem volucris dispersit in auras." 

The bones of the poor crusader whitened 



BOSENBEUG. 21 1 

the deserts of Syria, but his castle reverted 
to Jhe Markgraves of Austria. Ottocar, 
king of Bohemia, gave it in 1271 to the 
patriarch of Aquileia ; but in the reign of 
the Emperor Albert I. we find it again in 
the possession of the house of Austria. 
The Emperor Frederick IV. took posses- 
sion of it as guardian of Ladislaus, but he 
was ejected by force of arms in 1457, and 
the castle given back to Ladislaus. Ru- 
dolph II. pledged and afterwards sold it, with 
Rohreck, Weinberg, and the whole Isper- 
thal, to the Barons of Hoyos, from which 
family it was repurchased by the present 
emperor in 1801. The tilt-yard is still in 
good preservation, and the gardens are 
beautiful. His Majesty is very partial to 
the spot, and makes frequent excursions by 
land as far as the Strudel and Wirbel, 
from whence he returns in the boat of a 
schiffmeister at Bosenbeug of the name of 
Feldmiiller, whom he patronizes highly, 
and who is considered the richest man of 
his calling in Lower Austria. He builds 
yearly about twenty of the boats called 
kellheimers, and employs one hundred 
horses and three hundred men. Most of the 

P 2 



212 AUSTRIA. 

inhabitants of the little markt of Bosenbeug 
have, as may be supposed, considerably 
benefited from its becoming an Imperial 
residence. 

The town of Ips or Yps, as it is indif- 
ferently spelt, on the opposite bank, is sup- 
posed by some old geographers to be the 
Usbium of Ptolemy, by others the Pons 
Isidis. It is seated at the confluence of a 
river of the same name with the Danube ; 
and, in the time of Charlemagne, appears 
under the name of Ibesse and Isebruch, 
as the property of the Counts of Sempt 
and Ebersberg. In 1275, Ips threw open 
its gates to Rudolph of Hapsburg ; and, 
in 1741, the Bavarian and French armies 
here formed a junction: its name has, 
however, become familiar to foreign lands, 
not from the deeds of arms done in its 
neighbourhood, but from its having shared 
with Passau the trade in the crucibles 
made at Hafner-zell, and which, as I have 
before mentioned, are distinguished through- 
out the world by the names of the places 
where they are sold, instead of that of the 
spot where they are fabricated. Imme- 
diately below Ips, the river forms a reach, 



ips. 213 

which, from the difficulty of its navigation, 
obtained the appellation that has eventu- 
ally attached itself to the point of land 
at which it commences, — Die Bose-Beug, li- 
terally/ 6 the bad corner." Before we turned 
this corner, however, night had sunk down 
upon land and flood, and our crew be- 
gan to be clamorous for rest and refresh- 
ment. Our drunken beast of a steersman, 
whom we had now begun cordially to 
detest, insisted upon proceeding as far as 
Marbach ; and accordingly the men, who 
knew nothing of the river,pulled away again 
for a quarter of an hour rather sulkily ; when, 
having lost sight of the lights of Ips, and 
seeing none appear in the distance, they 
again expressed symptoms of impatience, 
and upon receiving from a passing boat the 
information that Marbach was yet " eine 
starke stunde" (a long hour) distant, they 
became outrageous, and vowed they would 
run the boat ashore, at the first village they 
could discover. Neither my companion nor 
myself much objected to their determina- 
tion, as there w r as every probability, from 
their utter ignorance of the river, the inabi- 
lity of the steersman to direct them, and the 



214 AUSTRIA. 

heavy fog that was fast rising, that in the 
course of a few minutes we should go bump 
ashore somewhere, whether we would or 
no ; and therefore a hovel, where bed and 
supper might be procured, was certainly 
preferable to a sandbank without either. 
Two or three tapers glimmering above the 
fog through something like windows, at- 
tracting our notice on the left, the men 
pulled towards it, and our boat soon grated 
on the sand, under what first appeared a 
lofty wall, but which turned out, on exami- 
nation, a steep bank, upon the ridge of which 
stood half a dozen poor cottages. Up we 
clambered on all fours, dragging our cloaks 
and portmanteaus with us ; and a man 
making his appearance with a lantern, we 
followed him into an old crazy-looking 
hovel, which, by the outward and visible 
sign of a dead bush dangling over its 
door, too plainly indicated the miserable 
state of its inward and spiritual grace, 
though dignified by the title of a gasthaus *. 
Several sufficiently ill-looking fellows in 
jackets of undressed black sheep-skin, caps 

* A gast-haus is an hotel ; a wirths-haus, a tavern, or ale- 
house. 



GOTTSDORF. 215 

of the same material, and high boots, each 
with a formidable clasp-knife, worn as an 
English carpenter wears his rule; two 
brawny, bare-armed, masculine wenches in 
similar jackets, with dark handkerchiefs 
bound round their brows in the Austrian 
fashion ; and an old hag, whose habits and 
person were equally indescribable, formed 
the rather startling group to which our 
guide introduced us. Our application for 
beds appeared to astonish them. They 
had no such thing ; there was plenty of 
straw. They had no coffee, no butter ; — 
the poor fellows who had rowed us sat 
down on a bench, and began to gnaw some 
dry bread, the only refreshment the hotel 
seemed capable of furnishing. On a sudden 
it occurred to us that a basin of boiled 
milk might be procurable, and sure enough 
half a gallon, at least, of delicious milk was 
in ten minutes smoking in two glorious 
wooden bowls, upon the long oaken table 
before us. Our host now entered w T ith one 
or two helpers laden with straw, which 
they spread all over the floor, and our crew, 
having finished their crusts, stretched them- 
selves out in a row, their knapsacks under 



216 AUSTRIA. 

their heads, and soon commenced a nasal 
symphony, more powerful than harmonious. 
The company and the family having one 
by one withdrawn, with the exception of the 
old beldame, who waited to take away the 
solitary candle, we betook ourselves also 
to our portion of the straw, and never in 
my life did I enjoy a sweeter, sounder 
sleep than that which bound up my senses 
in the humble gasthaus of Gottsdorf till 
six o'clock the next morning. 



217 



CHAPTER VII. 

Marbach. — Maria-Taferl. — Pechlarn. — Wiedeneck. — Molk. 
— Lubereck. — The Valley of the Wachau. — Schonbiihel. — 
Aggstein. — The Teufel's-Mauer. — Spitz, and the Ruin of 
Hinterhaus. — Church and Village of St. Michel. — Castle of 
Diirrenstein. — Narrow escape of Marshal Mortier during 
the Campaign of 1805. — Mautern. — Stein. — Krems. — 
Kloster Gottweih. — Trasenmauer. — Arrival at Tuln. 

We had now been three days upon the 
water, during which time scarcely a cloud 
had speckled the deep blue of the sky. As 
thefirst light of morning, however, struggled 
through the litttle dingy casement of our 
humble hotel, we were disagreeably sur- 
prised at finding that the fog, which had 
risen the previous evening after sunset, still 
rolled heavily along the river, and threat- 
ened to continue the greater part, if not the 
whole of the day. We were still nearly 
two days' journey from Vienna, and a 
change of weather, which might be por- 
tended by this unwelcome visitant, would 
probably make it four, five, or even six, be- 
fore we could reach the capital, to say 
nothing of the disagreeables it would bring 



218 AUSTRIA. 

in its train. At the risk of losing the 
beauty of the prospect, therefore, we urged 
our immediate departure, but here we were 
met by a new difficulty. Our drunken 
steersman, who had lain all night in the 
boat, was now ill in sober sadness, and 
quite incapable of steering us. A new 
pilot was to be found, and, after much par- 
ley and delay, our host of the gasthaus 
signified his consent to take the helm ; but 
the fog, instead of dispersing, as we had 
faintly hoped, with the rising sun, appeared 
to increase in density; and not one of our 
boatmen could be prevailed on to trust 
himself afloat in it. After at least another 
hour's delay, and considerable altercation, 
by dint of a little money, and promise of 
more, we induced three out of the four to 
venture on board, and, about eight o'clock, 
pushed off into the fog, by this time quite 
as thick, though not so yellow, as that 
which pervades Lombard Street on a No- 
vember afternoon. Fortunately this part 
of the Danube is not fertile in fine views. 
The small village of Barthub andMossling, 
on the left, and Hinterhaus, and the two 
Agens, on the right, have nothing to re- 



ST, LORENZ. 219 

commend them, either in a picturesque or 
historical point of view; and the distant 
prospect of Maria-Taferl we had afterwards 
an opportunity of enjoying. The river, 
from Bosenbeug and Ips, makes a bold 
sweep to the south as far as Sausenstein, 
that stands on a small promontory on the 
right bank, round which its waters boil and 
foam, and form what, in earlier times, was 
called the Charybdis Pogica. The ruin 
here is of a very late date. It was a man- 
sion belonging to some ecclesiastic, and 
burned by the French in the last war. The 
Cistercian convent near it, called St. Lorenz 
in the Gottesthal, was founded by Eber- 
hard von Walsee, in 1336. In the fifteenth 
century, it was attacked and plundered by 
some of the knightly robbers who infested 
the neighbourhood, and who are termed 
" fr aires hostiles" in the old chronicles. 
The tombs of the family of Walsee, which 
became extinct in 1483, are still in exist- 
ence here. On that of Reinprecht, the last 
of his race, is simply his motto, " Thue 
Recht," with the words beneath it, " peri- 
isti amor," in allusion to the termination 
of the feud between the Houses of Walsee 



220 AUSTRIA. 

and Schaumberg. All this, at least, says 
Herr Schultes, who had the advantage of 
visiting this spot in clearer weather — we 
saw neither ruin nor convent, nor tombs ; 
but what we did see near this place was 
equally picturesque and striking. The 
sound of voices chaunting a kind of hymn, 
stole faintly on our ears, and, as it became 
more distinct, a boat appeared, like a phan- 
tom, in the fog, crowded with pilgrims, on 
their way to Marbach and Maria-Taferl. 
They were principally women, and sat 
huddled together round a priest, who, bare- 
headed, supported a crucifix, and occasion- 
ally chimed in, in a deep bass voice, with the 
quavering trebles of his companions. For 
a few minutes, they floated beside us, and 
then gradually melted again into the mist, 
as though they had been creatures of it, 
the hymn dying away in the distance. 

Before we reached Marbach, the fog, to 
our great gratification, had evidently begun 
to disperse. It still covered the face of the 
water, but the blue sky was visible above it ; 
and the sun, occasionally breaking through 
it, gave us a glimpse of this or that bank, 
according to the situation of the boat. The 



MARBACH. 221 

Markt of Marbach existed as early, at 
least, as the thirteenth century, as, in 
1208, we hear of the Knights of Marbach. 
Almost every house in the place is an inn, 
as, lying under the lofty mountain, on which 
stands the most celebrated place of pil- 
grimage in Lower Austria— the church of 
Maria-Taferl, it is of course the place of 
rendezvous for the countless devotees who 
swarm from all parts of the empire to that 
holy shrine. The inhabitants of Vienna, in 
the middle of September, come on horse- 
back, in every kind of vehicle, and even on 
foot, hundreds in a day, and return by the 
Danube. A great traffic is also carried on 
with these pious personages in crosses, 
amulets, rosaries, and holy images, pictures 
and books of all descriptions, by the inha- 
bitants of Marbach ; besides which, a num- 
ber of beggars reside here, each of whom 
has his or her regular standing upon the 
path winding up the hill to the Maria- 
Taferl ; and spend duly every evening, in 
eating and drinking, the large sums they 
have collected during the day. It has been 
calculated that upwards of a million and a 
half of florins are annually expended here; 



222 AUSTRIA. 

and the minister of the place told Herr 
Schultes that one year he himself had 
counted 135,000 pilgrims. A proverbial 
rhyme tends also much to the well doing 
of the inhabitants of Marbach : 

" Wer nach Maria Taferl ein Wallfahrt maken thut 
Diess ihm Maria Taferl macht aller wiederg-ut : " 

which may be rendered, — 

Who to Maria Taferl a pilgrimage hath ta'en, 
To him Maria Taferl shall make all good again. 

Expense, therefore, is the last thing con- 
sidered ; and the spirit of extravagance 
extends itself even to the townspeople, 
who lavish, in the pride of their well-filled 
purses, ridiculous sums upon the decoration 
of their houses, so that, according to another 
.German proverb, says Schultes, — 

" Was dureh das Pfeifchen kommt, geht durch die 
Trommel davon." 

What comes through the fife goes away through the 
drum. 

Our new steersman put into this little markt 
to buy some beer and bread ; and the fog 
now rolling off in broken masses, enabled 
us to get a peep at the town, which seemed 
a strange jumble of alehouses and chapels, 



MARIA-TAFERL. 223 

signs and crucifixes, all very gaily and fan- 
tastically painted, and forming, in short, a 
most consistent trysting-place for " pub- 
licans and sinners." 

Maria-Taferl is to the pious Austrian 
what Maria-Einsiedel is to the Roman Ca- 
tholic Swabian, and Maria-Oetting to the 
Bavarian of the same persuasion. The 
lovers of an extensive and beautiful pros- 
pect may, for an hour's climbing, enjoy, 
from the summit of the mountain on which 
it stands, a splendid panorama of the Da- 
nube and great part of Lower Austria, the 
Alps of the Steyermark, and the whole 
chain of mountains from the lofty Schnee- 
berg in the Wiener- Wald, to the frontier of 
Bavaria. The history of this celebrated 
place of pilgrimage may be bought for two 
kreutzers, a great deal more than it is 
worth, but that it is amusing and instructive 
to see how grossly the Roman Catholic 
priesthood are yet permitted to gull an 
ignorant, and consequently superstitious 
people. 

The precious document sets forth with 
stating the well-known fact of the exist- 
ence, from time immemorial, of a venerable 



224 AUSTRIA. 

oak-tree on the top of the mountain, in 
which was placed a figure of the crucified 
Redeemer. To this spot the inhabitants 
of Klein-Pechlarn, a small village in the 
neighbourhood, used to repair every Easter 
Monday to put up their petitions for a 
fine harvest, and, after hearing the service 
chaunted, sat down at a stone table before 
the church-door, and ate, drank, and were 
merry; from whence arose the name of Ma- 
ria- TaferU or Mary of the Table. In 1662, 
a herdsman, either from ignorance or wan- 
tonness, attempted to hew down the sacred 
tree, on which age had already heavily laid 
its withering and deforming hand. At the 
first blow, however, the axe recoiled so 
violently, that it sprung from his grasp and 
wounded one of his feet severely. Un- 
checked by this warning, however, he 
made a second blow, when it again re- 
coiled with still more violence, and despe- 
rately wounded his other foot*. The pro- 



* This prodigy will remind the classical reader of the 
punishment of the Amazons, who attempted to cut down the 
sacred grove that shadowed the temple of Achilles in the 
island of Leuce. At the first blows they struck, the axe- 
heads flew from their handles, and laid the impious wielders 
dead upon the spot. 



MARIA-TAFERL. 225 

fane herdman, now lifting up his eyes in 
agony, observed the crucifix, and struck 
with remorse, craved pardon of God for 
his impiety ; upon which the blood stopped 
of its own accord, and his wounds healed 
immediately, without surgical or any hu- 
man assistance ! Ten years after this 
miraculous occurrence, a man named Alex- 
ander Schinnagel, who suffered under a deep 
and distressing melancholy, which he could 
not shake off, came, by heaven directed, to 
the house of a schoolmaster, who had in his 
chamber an image of the Virgin, called a 
Vesperbild. Schinnagel bought the image, 
and carried it home. In the middle of the 
night, he heard " a still small voice," say- 
ing, "Wouldst thou be cured, take the 
image, and place it in the oak at Maria- 
Taferl/' Accordingly, at day-break, up 
rose Alexander, and proceeded with his 
purchase to the mountain-top, where he 
placed it as directed, taking down at the 
same time the crucifix, which age and 
exposure to the weather had nearly de- 
stroyed. Immediately his melancholy left 
him, and he returned home a merry, and, 
we hope, a grateful man. Since that 



226 AUSTRIA. 

period the angels themselves have fre- 
quently visited the sacred spot. On the 
17th of June, 1658, a most credible (cre- 
dulous ?) personage saw a snow white and 
luminous apparition, in mid-day, before 
the holy effigy. In 1659, three persons, 
equally worthy of belief, saw a whole 
troop of angels, in white garments, and in 
processional order, on their way to the 
Vesperbild. Another time, when forty 
people were collected together in its neigh- 
bourhood, three of them saw an angelical 
procession in the air, and three bright 
stars of remarkable magnitude immedi- 
ately above the figure. Again, a proces- 
sion of white-clothed personages was seen 
by eight or ten people, the leading appari- 
tion bearing a red cross ; and shortly after- 
wards a wax taper was suddenly observed 
burning before the Vesperbild. In 1661, 
many other angelical phantoms were seen 
by sometimes thirty, and once by a hundred 
people at a time, all of them most respect- 
able and credible witnesses, whose testi- 
monies were registered, signed, and sworn 
to before the competent authorities !* 

* " Kurzer Bericht von dem Ursprung des wunder- 



MARIA-TAFERL. 227 

As the vapours, which had till now enve- 
loped us, began rapidly to yield to the power 
of the sun, and were swept in masses by 
the fresh breeze of morning from the bright 
face of the river and the fair hills beside 
it, disclosing the rich and beautiful prospect 
that opened upon us with the widening 
valley, smiling in warmth and light ; it was 
impossible to suppress the remark, common- 
place as it may be considered, that, thus, at 
no very distant period, would the mists of 
error and superstition fly before the in- 
creasing influence of knowledge and truth, 
and man, awaking to the contemplation of 
the sublime paths they enlighten, " Look," 
full of hope, joy, and gratitude, "through 
Nature, up to nature's God !" 

Albert IV., Duke of Austria, whose 
journey to the Holy Land gave rise to so 
many romantic stories, that heobtained the 
appellation of the "wonder of the world/' 
resided for some time at Marbach, in the 
valley of All Saints, with the Carthusians : 
" with them," says a contemporary, " he 

thatigen schmerzhaften Gnadenbildes Maria-Taferl." There 
are numberless tracts of this description sold at Marbach 
to the pilgrims, who " hold each strange tale devoutly 
true." 

Q 2 



228 AUSTRIA. 

attends matins, reads the lessons, makes 
inclinations, genuflexions, observes ceremo- 
nies, confessions and prayers. He not only 
joins them in the performance of divine 
service in the choir, but affords an example 
of humility by frequenting the Chapter- 
house. In a word, he calls himself brother 
Albert, and considers himself in every re- 
spect as one of the order*." 

So few travellers ever think of taking a 
boat to themselves, that we were hailed at 
Marbach, as an ordinari-schiff-f, by three 
poor women who wanted to go to Vienna. 
Having plenty of room to spare, we con- 
sented to their coming on board, which they 
accordingly did with their baskets and 
bundles sans ceremonie, imagining that 
they should have to pay the usual fare for 
their passage ; and with this accession of 
company and cargo we again set forward. 
Below Schelmenbach and Krumpen-Nuss- 
baum falls the mountain- stream called the 
Erlaf, into the Danube, named in deeds of 
the time of Charlemagne, and long the 

* Fragmentum Historicum de quatuor Albertis — apud 
Pez. vol.ii. p. 385. 

t The regular weekly passage-boats from Ulm, Regens- 
burg, and Stadt-am-hof, to Vienna, are called " ordinari- 
schiffe." 



THE ERLAF. 229 

boundary between Bavaria and the Land 
of the Huns. At the mouth of the Erlaf, 
is a Rechen or Grate, where the wood col- 
lects that is floated down this stream from 
the forests in the neighbourhood of Maria- 
Zell, in the Steyermark, near which it 
takes its rise. It is customary in Germany 
to place one of these gratings at the mouth 
of any tributary stream, or in the bed of 
any river where a line of demarcation is 
drawn naturally or artificially between two 
kingdoms, two provinces or even two pa- 
rishes. So that the branches and trunks of 
trees blown down by high winds, and swept 
away by inundations into the current, 
should not be carried beyond the frontiers 
or boundaries of the state or property to 
which they belong, and which derives 
from them no inconsiderable portion of its 
revenue. 

The timber, also, regularly felled by 
the wood-cutters, is thrown thus carelessly 
on the mountain-streams of Germany, and 
floats down to the Rechen or Grate, where 
it is afterwards collected by its owners, who 
are thus saved the trouble and expense of 
land carriage ; and the drifting property is 



230 AUSTRIA. 

protected from plunder by the severity of 
the laws relating to it. 

Before us now lay the two Pechlarns ; 
Great Pechlarn on the right, and Little 
Pechlarn on the left bank. At the first we 
determined to breakfast, were it only to 
feast where the fair Chrimhilt had feasted, 
in 

" Die Burg zu Bechelaren." 

No relics of the " Burg" itself, however, 
exist; but an old gateway, some round 
towers, and here and there a few feet of 
crumbling wall, attest the early grandeur of 
the place, and fancy fills up the chasms 
which time has made, with court and keep, 
buttress and battlement, crowded with fair 
damsels and fierce soldiery, "all, all abroad 
to gaze" at the advancing pageant. 

There, round that point of land, comes the 
royal fleet, the banners of Hungary, Bur- 
gundy, Bavaria, Pechlarn, and Passau, fling- 
ing their blazoned glories on the breeze, and 
proudly announcing to the admiring burgh- 
ers the rich freight of rank and beauty which 
the swelling Danube is wafting to their port. 
Five hundred " Kemps of Hungary," their 
bright hauberks glittering in the sun, 



PECHLARK 231 

crowd the decks of the first vessels. On 
the prow of the foremost stands the valiant 
Markgraf, Rudiger of Pechlarn, than whom 

" A truer soldier never 
Was in this world yborn,*" 

bending eagerly forward to distinguish, 
amongst the bevy of beauties at " the open 
windows^" of the castle, the fair forms of his 
beloved wife and daughter. Beneath the 
rich canopy that shades the deck of yonder 
bark, with the gilded oars, now doubling 
the little promontory, sits the peerless 
bride of the mighty Etzel, but she hears 
not the shout of welcome that rises on the 
shore ; she marks not the gay multitudes 
that crowd to pay her homage. Her brow 
is clouded, her ruby lip quivers, tears like 
liquid diamonds tremble upon the long dark 
silken lashes of her downcast eyes ; the 
form of the noble Siegfried is constantly 
before her. She hears but the voice of her 
murdered champion calling for vengeance ; 
she sees but the ghastly wound which 

* " Nie ward getreuer'r Degen geboren auf der Erde." 
Nibelungen-lied. 

f " Die Fenster in den mauern, die sieht man offen 
stahn." Ditto. 



232 



AUSTRIA. 



treachery dealt, bleeding afresh at the ap- 
proach of the dark and deadly Haghen. 
Yet, passing beautiful is she even in sor- 
row, and still warrants the glowing descrip- 
tion of the old minnesaenger, Henry of Of- 
terdingen. # 

" From out her broidered garments 
Full many a jewel shone, 
The rosy red bloomed sweetly 
Her lovely cheek upon. 
He who would in fancy 
Paint that lady fair, 
In this world has never 
Seen such beauty rare. 

As the moon outshineth 
Every twinkling star, 
Shedding careless splendour 
From out her cloudy car ; 
So, before her maidens, 
Stood that lady bright, 
And higher swelled the spirit 
Of every gazing knight. t" 

By her side stands a venerable figure, clad 
in the gorgeous and sacred vestments of his 
office. The flowing stole of embroidered 
silk, the pallium of cloth of gold, the 
jewelled mitre, the "gilt shoon," and the 
massive but richly wrought cross and cro- 
sier, borne by two of his attendants, distin- 

* The supposed author of the Nibelungen-lied. 
t Nibelungen-lied, V. 1116 — 23. 



PECK LARK. 233 

guish him as the holy Pilgerin, the wealthy 
and powerful Bishop of Passau, uncle to 
the queen, and related also to the noble 
Rudiger. The pale youth near him, his 
hands reverently crossed upon his bosom, 
is his clerk Conrad, who afterwards assisted 
him to write, in " the Latin tongue," the 
adventures of the Nibelungen. On the 
other hand of the lovely Chrimhilt, stands 
the faithful Duke Eckewart, who has sworn 
to escort his liege lady to Hungary; and 
the remainder of the flotilla bears the five 
hundred chosen Knights of Burgundy, who 
follow his standard. The vision is over, 
the airy castle has vanished — 

" The knights are dust, 
Their good swords are rust, 
Their souls are with the saints we trust." 

And a rude and solitary boat is rocking 
under the windows of a poor white-washed 
wirthshaus, which, with half a dozen hum- 
ble cottages and some mouldering walls, 
now marks the site of the once strong and 
gay burg of Pechlarn ! 

Rudiger of Pechlarn, as well as his kins- 
man, the Bishop of Passau, is an historical 
personage. He was Count of the frontier 



234 AUSTRIA. 

during the reign of Arnulph, Duke of Bava- 
ria, and died in 916. His son, Markgraf 
Rudiger II., died in 943, and with him the 
direct male line became extinct. The little 
town of Pechlarn is now principally inha- 
bited by potters. 

Beyond Pechlarn, the river keeps still 
widening, till, on the left bank, rises the 
fine old Castle of Weideneck, which re- 
ceives its name from a neighbouring rivu- 
let, and is supposed to have been built by 
the elder Rudiger of Pechlarn. The Em- 
peror Frederick IV., and the famous Mat- 
thias Corvinus, King of Hungary, both be- 
leaguered Weideneck. The former twice 
won and lost it. But the eye has scarcely 
caught sight of Weideneck, before it is at- 
tracted by the distant domes of the magni- 
ficent Convent of Molk, that appear over 
the willows of an island, in the centre of 
the river. Gradually, the entire facade of 
the convent, upon its granite rock, and the 
little market-town beneath it, glide from 
behind the island, and complete one of 
the most imposing and beautiful pictures 
upon the river. The present splendid struc- 
ture was built in 1720-32, by an architect, 



MOLK. 235 

named Prandauer ; but the rock on which 
it stands, once supported, not only a more 
ancient convent, but also a Roman fortress. 
Under the name of Medilke, it appears in 
the Nibelungen-lied, 

" At Medilke were the goblets 
Of costly gold, filled high, 
And the wine went gaily round 
Mid that noble company." 

But the authentic history of Molk com- 
mences apparently in the sixteenth century, 
when the Markgraf Leopold I., surnamed 
the Illustrious, made it his residence after 
wresting it from the power of the Hunga- 
rians. This valiant prince founded here a 
kloster, and was here interred after his 
murder at Wurzburg, as were likewise his 
wife, Richarde, his sons Henry and Al- 
brecht, and their wives, Mechthilde and 
Frowiza, Adelheid, Countess of Leopold 
the Strong, the Margraf Ernest III., sur- 
named the Valiant, and his lady Schwane- 
hild, Leopold III., surnamed the Hand- 
some, and many other noble Austrian and 
Bavarian knights and ladies. Saint Colo- 
manus, or Saint Colman, descended, ac- 
cording to the story, from the early Kings 



236 AUSTRIA. 

of Scotland, was also buried at Mblk. This 
saint, travelling through Austria to Jeru- 
salem, was seized, at Stockerau, by some 
rebellious peasants, A. D. 1012, who, * 
taking him for a spy, hung him upon a tree, 
where his body remained a year and a 
half without putrefaction, and afterwards 
worked many miracles ! Leopold III., in 
the year 1089, established some Benedic- 
tines from Lambach in this Kloster; and 
his son, Leopold IV., who was born here in 
1073, and here celebrated his marriage 
with Agnes, daughter of the Emperor 
Henry IV., and widow of Frederick of Ho- 
henstaufen, gave up his palace to them, and 
retired to the Khalenberg, near Vienna. 
The Kloster of Molk soon became prover- 
bial for its wealth, and its superior was the 
Primate of Lower Austria. In 1619, the in- 
surgents of Upper Austria besieged Molk 
for upwards of a month, as did also the 
Turks in 1684. Napoleon had his head- 
quarters here in 1805, and again in 1809; 
and a mark is shown upon the floor of 
one of the apartments in the Kloster, which ; 
he is said to have made in a passion. While 
a few monks inhabit this splendid palace, 



LUBERECK, 237 

their sovereign, one of the most powerful 
monarchs in Europe, passes a considerable 
portion of his time in an humble wooden 
building, upon the opposite bank of the 
Danube. At Lubereck, a little below the 
Castle of Weideneck, beside a romantic 
waterfall, is a small edifice, built entirely 
of wood, and formerly the country resi- 
dence of the Baron von Fiihrenberg, post- 
master of Molk. Between this place and 
Bosenbeug, Francis I. divides nearly all the 
hours which, during summer, he snatches 
from the cares of empire. In his plain, 
domestic habits, and in the kindness and 
affability with which, in such moments of 
relaxation, he listens or chats to his humble 
neighbours, the present Sovereign of Aus- 
tria greatly resembles our own late vene- 
rable monarch, King George III., and, like 
him, has compelled his bitterest political 
enemies to acknowledge that, in all the 
private virtues of life, as a husband, a fa- 
ther, and a master, he is an example, not 
only to his own subjects, but to mankind. 

On the left bank,beyond Lubereck, is the 
markt of Emmersdorf, at the point of a 
narrow neck of land, round which the Da- 



238 AUSTRIA. 

nube wheels to the north-east, and enters the 
romantic valley of theWachau. Emmers- 
dorf, like so many other places on the Da- 
nube, was formerly the seat of some power- 
ful robbers, who levied contributions upon 
the passing vessels, and blotted the page of 
history with such bloody deeds that, to use 
the expression of a modern German writer, 
the hand of a common executioner alone 
could steadily transcribe them. At the 
mouth of the Bielach, a little river that 
empties itself into the Danube nearly facing 
Emmersdorf, and over which there is a 
ferry, the celebrated district called the 
Wachau commences, and extends itself as 
far as the castle of Diirrenstein, some say 
as far as Mautern and Krems. The view 
from this point, either looking up or down 
the river, is exceedingly beautiful. The 
western prospect is enriched with the castle 
of Weideneck, the Palace-convent and 
markt of Molk, and the noble mountains of 
Upper Austria, which here you gaze on 
for the last time. Turning and looking 
into the mouth of the yawning gorge, the 
eye is first attracted by the castle and 
kloster of Schonbiihel, picturesquely si- 



SCHONBUHEL. 239 

tuated on the brink of the precipitous right 
bank, behind which rise some gigantic 
mountains. On the left, a crescent of bold 
craggy hills, towering one over the other, 
checks the northerly inclination of the 
mighty flood, and bends it again eastward, 
while upon one of them the fine ruin of 
Aggstein glimmers white in the distance. 

Charlemagne, in the year 803, gave the 
whole valley of the Wachau (in terra Ava- 
rorum) from the Bielach as far as Tuln, 
Zeizelmauer and Perschling, (Tulna, Zy sen- 
murus et Bierstlinga,) to the Bishop of 
Passau, and it belonged to Bavaria, at least 
"in spiritualibus," till 1805. Schloss Schon- 
buhel stands, as I have before said, at the 
entrance to the valley, upon a wall of gra- 
nite, from which its own walls are scarcely 
distinguishable. Schultes calls it a ruin, 
but to me it had the appearance of an 
inhabited chateau in excellent repair. It 
is a singular-looking building, with a tall, 
square, but narrow tower, shooting up from 
the centre of its western front, more like 
a chimney than a turret. Its situation, 
however, is exceedingly fine and command- 
ing, and it has the reputation of being 



240 AUSTRIA. 

haunted by no less a spirit than Lucifer 
himself, a circumstance which would alone 
render it interesting to the romantic tourist. 
A little beyond it stands an old chapel or 
kloster, belonging to the Schloss. In the 
fourteenth century this place belonged to 
the family of Starrhemberg. Having now 
fairly entered the valley, we perceived the 
markt of Aggsbach on the left bank, and 
facing it, Klein, or little Aggsbach. In a 
chasm behind the latter, Haderich von 
Meissau, the Kuenringer and marshal of 
Lower Austria, founded, in 1386, a convent 
for thirteen Carthusian Monks, which was 
suppressed by Joseph II. in 1782; and on 
the mountain top, a little beyond the 
former, stand the before-mentioned ruins of 
the Castle of Aggstein. There is a tradi- 
tion respecting this castle, of a peculiarly 
German cast, and which would work up 
well in " a tale of terror." It is said that 
it was anciently the hold of a robber knight 
named Schrekenwald, who, after seizing 
and plundering the unfortunate travellers 
on the Danube, thrust his wretched cap- 
tives through an iron door over the rocks 
into a deep abyss behind the castle, which 



CASTLE OF AGGSTEIN. 241 

he called his " Little Rose Garden," and 
from which (even if by a miracle they were 
not dashed to pieces in their fall) the 
chance of escape was next to impossible. 
The tradition is preserved in an Austrian 
proverb ; when any one is in such a strait 
as to preclude all hope of extrication, he 
is said to be " in Schreckenwald's Rose- 
garden." The story, however, goes on to 
say, that, by some extraordinary chance, 
one of his intended victims did effect his 
escape, and with the help of his friends, 
who returned with him in arms, surprised, 
made prisoner, and hung the monster. 

In the year 1232, Hadmar, the Kuen- 
ringer, who was also lord of Diirrenstein, 
possessed this castle, and ravaged, in com- 
pany with his brother Heinrich von Weitra, 
the whole country as far as Stein and 
Krems. The trembling inhabitants called 
them " the Hounds," and Frederick, the last 
of the Babenbergers, in vain endeavoured 
to subdue and destroy them. A merchant, 
named Rudiger, at length suggested a ruse 
de guerre to the Emperor. " I will freight," 
said he, " a vessel at Regensburg, laden 
with the most costly merchandise : the 



242 AUSTRIA. 

tidings will soon reach the robbers at Agg- 
stein. Thirty stout knights shall lie con- 
cealed in the vessel, and when Hadmar 
rushes down from his castle, and boards 
us with a few of his vassals, thinking to 
plunder some peaceable merchants, the 
knights shall rush out upon and overpower 
him, while I push off from the shore." 
The plan was adopted, and succeeded. 
The vessel was freighted at Regensburg, 
and stopped at Aggstein. Hadmar flung 
himself into the snare set for him, and 
Rudiger and his people, rowing off at the 
same moment, brought the robber prisoner 
to the feet of Frederick. 

In 1277, Luitold Kuenring possessed the 
castles of Aggstein and Durrenstein, but 
lost them both, with many others, in rebel- 
lion against Albert I., and was banished 
the country in 1291. From that period its 
history is a mere record of bargains and 
sales, which terminates with its purchase 
by a Count of Beroldingen, in 1819. 

The castle is finely situated on the crest 
of a conical hill, and the path up to it lies 
through a thick forest which affords a 
pleasing shelter to the noontide traveller, 



CASTLE OF AGGSTEIN. 243 

whom curiosity leads to inspect the ruins. 
The keys are kept in the little wirths- 
haus on the bank below it. Great part 
of the castle is in tolerable preservation' 
at least as far as regards the bare walls ; 
and the date over the gateway, if Prof. 
Schultes have rightly copied it, (for I did 
not see it myself,) appears to me rather 
apocryphal. The inscription runs thus : — 

" Das Purkstall hat ange 
vangen tze pauen her Jo 
rig der Schektvon w 
aid der nachten montag 
nach unser Frauventag 
nativitatis, da von Crist 
gpurd waren ergangen 
mccxxviii Jar.*" 

Below Schwallenbach, a small markt on 
the left bank, a rude mass of barren crags 

* " The castle was begun to be built by Jorig der Schekt- 
von-wald, the Monday after the nativity of our Lady, from the 
birth of Christ, the year 1228." Herr Schultes remarks, that 
he may be mistaken in the date, and mentions that Petz, in 
his Chronicle of Molk, (Parti, p. 261) speaks of a Baron 
Schekh, whose deeds were as black as those laid at the iron 
door of Schreckenwald, and who, in 1467, was besieged, and 
brought to such a pass, that " he," says the chronicler, " who 
formerly was lord of six castles, perished in poverty." This 
Schekh or Sheckt-von-Wald, as the name appears in the 
inscription, and the famous Schreckenwald, were, most pro- 
bably, one and the same person ; and from the state of the 
present building I should imagine it is more likely to have 
been built in the fifteenth than the thirteenth century. 

R 2 



244 AUSTRIA. 

has received the name of the Teufel's 
mauer (Devil's wall.) This busy " old 
gentleman" is said to have taken it into 
his head to block up the Danube at this 
spot, but, through some special interven- 
tion of Providence, a sudden stop was 
put to the infernal masonry. An echo 
slumbers here, which, waked by a pistol- 
shot, resents the impertinence in a voice 
of thunder. Having passed the villages 
of Ober or Schloss-Arnsdorf, and Mitter- 
Arnsdorf, we at length arrived before the 
markt and castle of Spitz, the towers of 
which had been visible from Schwallen- 
bach. Both town and castle belonged 
anciently to Bavaria, and they have been 
in turn the property of most of the eccle- 
siastical and lay robbers we have already 
heard so much of — the bishops of Passau 
and Salzburg, the monks of Nieder Altaich, 
the Margraves Burkhard and Leopold. 
Hansen the Kapeller, Hadmar the Kuen- 
ringer, &c. &c. In 1805, Marshal Mortier, 
who had narrowly escaped destruction near 
Diirrenstein, was glad to cross the Danube 
at this place by means of a bridge of 
boats. The old castle above the little 



ST. MICHEL. 245 

markt is called the Hinterhaus, and is one 
of the most picturesque ruins on the river. 
The rock it stands upon is of an extra- 
ordinary form, black, rugged, and bare, 
a gigantic pedestal, worthy of supporting 
this fine monument of the middle ages. 
The church and village of St. Michel, with 
their old round towers and crumbling walls, 
are the next interesting objects. The pre- 
cipices upon both banks now assume the 
most fantastic forms. The vine has here 
again made its appearance. Its light green 
is beautifully contrasted with the dark firs 
and pines, and the white barren peaks that 
Nature seems to have fashioned in her most 
eccentric moods. 

As the valley narrows, the rocks rise 
higher and higher, and the wild scenery of 
the Schlagen is for the last time repeated. 
This savage glen has long been considered 
by the peasantry of the neighbourhood as 
the haunt of witches and evil spirits ; and 
about thirty years ago a poor little old 
woman, who was feeding her goat upon 
one of these precipices,, was absolutely shot 
with a glass bullet, for a wetter-hexe (wea- 
ther- witch,) a violent thunder-storm which 



246 AUSTRIA. 

had unfortunately arisen being " charged 
to her account/' by the superstitious marks- 
man. On emerging from this gorge — the 
crowning glory of the romantic scene — the 
magnificent ruin of Biirrenstein presents 
itself on its stupendous rock. Language 
cannot do justice to the sublimity of this 
view, which might task the united pencils of 
a Claude and a Salvator Rosa. Indepen- 
dently of its beauty and grandeur, what 
recollections crowd upon the mind, as the 
splendid picture dawns upon the sight, — 
Richard Cceur de Lion ! — Six hundred years 
have past, and the name is still a spell- 
word to conjure up all the brightest and 
noblest visions of the age of chivalry. 
What glorious phantoms rise at the sound ! 
Saladin — the great, the valiant, the gene- 
rous Saladin, again wheels at the head of 
his Cavalry — Frederick Barbarossa, the 
conqueror of Iconium — the brave but politic 
Philip of France — the gallant but unfortu- 
nate Marquis of Montferrat ! The whole 
host of red-cross warriors — the knights of 
the Temple and St. John— start again into 
existence from their graves in the Syrian 
Deserts, and their tombs in Christian Eu- 



DURRENSTEIN. 247 

rope, where still their recumbent effigies 
grasp the sword in stone. The Lion- 
hearted Plantagenet once more flourishes 
with a giant's strength; the tremendous 
battle-axe, whereon " were twenty pounds 
of steel # ," around the nodding broom- plant 
in his cylindrical helmet, while his impla- 
cable foe, Leopold of Austria, leans frown- 
ing on his azure shield ; his surcoat of cloth 
of silver " dabbled in blood," that terrible 
token of his valour at Ptolemais, which 
is to this day the blazon of his ancient 
house f. Yonder walls have echoed to the 
clank of the fetters with which his un- 
knightly vengeance loaded Richard of Eng- 
land — to the minstrel-moan of " the Lord 
of Oc and No J," and (for who can coldly 

* Matthias Prideaux. 

f The present arms of the Archduchy of Austria, viz. 
Gules, a Fess argent, are derived from the circumstance of 
Leopold's surcoat, which was of cloth of silver, being com- 
pletely stained with blood at the siege of Ptolemais (Acre), 
with the exception of that part covered by the belt round his 
waist. The original bearings of Leopold were azure, six 
larks, or. 

I " Yes and No," one of the many titles given to Richard 
by the Provencal poets : — 

" And tell the Lord of Oc and No 

That peace already too long hath been." 
Bertrand de Born. Lays of the Minnesingers, p. 233. 



248 AUSTRIA. 

pause to separate such romantic facts from 
the romance they have inspired) to the lay 
of the faithful Blondel, which, wafted by 
the pitying winds to his Royal Master's ear, 
soothed his captivity, and brightened his 
hopes of freedom. Many are the castles 
on the banks of the Danube pointed out to 
the traveller as the prison of Cceur de Lion. 
Aggstein, which we have not long passed, 
Greifenstein, which we are approaching, 
both assert a similar claim to our interest, 
our veneration ; and it has been not impro- 
bably conjectured, that Richard was in 
turn the resident of each, being secretly 
removed from fortress to fortress, by his 
subtle and malignant captor, in order to 
baffle the researches of his friends and fol- 
lowers. Notwithstanding this dispute, Diir- 
renstein has by general consent, and long 
tradition, been established as the principal 
place of his confinement ; and no one who, 
with that impression, has gazed upon its 
majestic ruins, would thank the sceptic who 
should endeavour to disturb his belief. 
They stand upon a colossal rock, which 
rising from a promontory picturesquely ter- 
minated by the little town of Durrenstein, is 



DURRENSTEIN. 249 

singularly ribbed from top to bottom by a 
rugged mass of granite indented like a saw. 
On each side of this natural barrier, a strip 
of low wall, with small towers at equal 
distances, straggles down the rock, which, 
thus divided, is here and there cut towards 
its base into cross terraces planted with 
vines, and in the ruder parts left bare, or 
patched with lichens and shrubs of various 
descriptions. On its naked and conical 
crest, as though a piece of the crag itself, 
rises the keep of the castle, square, with 
four square towers at its angles, and not 
unlike the fine ruin at Rochester. Had 
the accomplished Hemans beheld the scene, 
her muse could scarcely have better de- 
scribed it. 

" He hath reached a mountain hung with vine, 



The feudal towers that crest its height 

Frown in unconquerable might ; 

Dark is their aspect of sullen state, 

No helmet hangs o'er the massy gate, 

To bid the wearied pilgrim rest, 

At the chieftain's board a welcome guest ; 

Vainly rich evening's parting smile 

Would chase the gloom of the haughty pile, 

That midst bright sunshine lowers on high, 

Like a thunder-cloud in a summer sky. 



250 AUSTRIA. 



Lingering he gazed — the rocks around 

Sublime in savage grandeur frowned ; 

Proud guardians of the regal flood, 

In giant strength the mountains stood; 

By torrents cleft, by tempests riven, 

Yet mingling still with the calm blue heaven *." 

The celebrated Denon had a sketch made 
of this castle and rock, and sent to Paris 
expressly for a scene in Gretry's well-known 
opera, " Richard Cceur de Lion/' 

The circumstances of Richard's quarrel 
with the Duke of Austria, and his subse- 
quent arrest and captivity, are too well 
known to require insertion here ; but, in 
the Chronicon Zwetlense, t. 1 5 s. 531, it 
is expressly stated that Richard was seized 
at Erpuch, near Vienna, (this Erpuch being 
the present Erdberg, one of the largest of 
its many suburbs,) and given, by Leopold, 
into the custody of Hadmar, the Kuen- 
ringer at Tyernstain (Durrenstein). The 
old chronicler, Haselbach, also says that 



* " The Troubadour and Richard Cceur de Lion." Mrs. 
Hemans, though she mentions ° the Danube's wave" in the 
same poem, has chosen to lay the scene of Richard's cap- 
tivity on the Rhine. Her vivid fancy, however, has actually 
depicted the rock and castle of Durrenstein. 



DURRENSTEIN. 251 

Richard came to Vienna as a pilgrim, in a 
company of cooks, and acted as turnspit 
one evening in the kitchen of the Duke of 
Austria. But a cook, recognizing his fea- 
tures, informed Leopold, who immediately 
commanded Richard to be brought before 
him, and addressed him in these words, 
" Domine Rex Anglorum, nimis nobilis es- 
tis, ut sitis assator in coquina ducis;" after 
which he delivered him into " Honesta 
Custodia." According to the Chronicon 
Conradi Coenobitse Schyrensis, Richard, 
after suffering shipwreck at Aquileia, was 
betrayed to Leopold by the Duke of Carin- 
thia. The story of his having betrayed 
himself, in his passage through Austria, 
by his expenses and liberalities, is, how- 
ever, the most probable, as well as the 
best authenticated. 

Diirrenstein is first mentioned about the 
year 1170, when, in some deeds, are found 
the names of Gottschalk and Regenbert 
von Tirnstain. In 1192, the year in which 
Richard was made prisoner, the castle is 
known to have belonged to Hadmar, the 
Kuenringer, who was likewise the posses- 
sor of Aggstein ; and, in 1231, it was taken, 



252 AUSTRIA. 

and partially destroyed by Frederick, the 
last of the Babenbergers. No events of 
consequence are recorded to have taken 
place in it from that time to the year 
1645, when the Swedes are supposed to 
have reduced it to its present ruinous con- 
dition. The little town at its foot, with 
its handsome church*, is prettily situated; 
and when, in 1741, a party of French and 
Bavarian cavalry forded the Danube, in 
hopes to surprise it, the citizens hit upon a 
plan as novel as ingenious. They barred 
up their gates as well as they could, laid 
logs of firewood on the walls, in imitation 
of cannon, chalked the rims of their hats, 
to give them the appearance of being bound 
with white lace, according to the uniform 
of their troops at that time, and parading 
up and down the ramparts with much 
drumming and bustle, taking care that 
their hats only should be seen above the 
walls, absolutely induced the enemy to be- 
lieve that the place was strongly garri- 
soned; and they accordingly wheeled to 

* In the cliff upon which this church stands, it is reported 
that a cavern has been found, which is the mouth of a subter- 
raneous passage, communicating with the vaults of the castle^ 



DURRENSTEIN. 253 

the right about without firing a shot, to the 
infinite joy and amusement of the cunning 
inhabitants, who certainly well deserved 
their escape. 

On the 11th of November, 1805, the de- 
files behind Durrenstein were the scene of 
a murderous conflict between the French, 
under Mortier and Dupont, and the Rus- 
sians, under Doctorof and the Austrian 
general, Schmidt. Mortier, who had in- 
structions from Napoleon to march upon 
Krems, and was anxious to prevent the 
Russians passing into Moravia, hurried 
forwards with Gazan's division, and a bri- 
gade of dragoons, being followed, at some 
distance, by Dupont' s division, and some 
Dutch regiments. Below Durrenstein, he 
encountered the advance guard of Milora- 
dowich, which he drove back to the gates 
of Stein, making a few prisoners : but this 
slight success had nearly led to his ruin, 
for, at the same instant, another strong 
corps of Russians, led by Generals Schmidt 
and Doctorof, descended the mountains in 
his rear ; and General Essen, having rein- 
forced Miloradowich, and thrown himself 
before Loiben, the French were between 



254 AUSTRIA. 

two fires. Mortier had no remedy but to 
cut his way, if possible, through the column 
in his rear, and so effect a junction with 
Dupont, to whom he had, fortunately for 
himself, sent orders to quicken his march. 
Major Henriod, at the head of the 100th 
regiment, charged the Russians, and a hor- 
rible carnage ensued in the narrow defiles, 
crowded with infuriated soldiery. Two 
pieces of artillery, which Mortier had with 
him, decided the issue of the combat in his 
favour, his adversaries being destitute of 
cannon. The brave Austrian, Schmidt, fell 
at the first discharge ; and Doctorof, en- 
deavouring to withdraw his troops from the 
ravine, was suddenly attacked, in the rear, 
by the division of Dupont, and thus found 
himself, in his turn, between two fires. 
With much difficulty he effected his retreat 
over the mountain he had just descended ; 
and the desperate troops of Mortier rush- 
ing into the defile, as they imagined, on 
the bayonets of their enemies, found them- 
selves, before they were aware, in the 
arms of their friends and countrymen. 
From twelve to fifteen hundred men were 
lost on each side, and the allies received a 



MAUTERN. 255 

terrible blow in the death of General 
Schmidt, the friend and companion in arms 
of the Archduke Charles*. 

Below Durrenstein, the river widens, and 
a new and cheerful prospect dawns upon 
the sight. Three small towns, Stein, Mau- 
tern, and Krems, the two first connected 
by a bridge, about six hundred and thirty 
paces long, across the Danube, present 
themselves at once to the eye ; and over 
Mautern, on the right bank, upon a finely- 
wooded mountain, rise the towers and cu- 
polas of Kloster Gottweih. 

Mautern was known as early as the 
time of Charlemagne, and in 898 was 
called the town of Mutarum, and fortified 
by Isanrich, the son of the Markgraf Arbo, 
when he rose against the Emperor Arnulf. 
Arnulf, though in the last stage of illness, 
laid seige to Mautern, and took it in the 
following year, a few months before his 
death ; but Isanrich succeeded in eluding 
his conqueror, and sought refuge in Mo- 
ravia. Eudolph of Hapsburg gave the 
same rights and privileges to Mautern as 

* Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoleon, par le General 
Jominy. 8vo. Paris, 1827, vol. ii. pp. 151—3. 



256 AUSTRIA. 

were enjoyed by Stein and Krems in reward 
for its early declaration in his favour. In 
1347, the burghers, having joined their 
neighbours of Krems in a cruel persecution 
of the Jews, were severely punished by 
Albert II., and their Lord, the Bishop of 
Passau, whose Christian zeal had been 
rather exuberant, was condemned to pay a 
fine to the Duke of six hundred pounds. 
Matthias Corvinus, the gallant King of 
Hungary, gained a victory here over the 
Austrians in 1484. In 1805, the Russians 
under Kutusof retreated before Murat, 
Lannes, and Soult, over the bridge at Mau- 
tern, and immediately burnt it. It was de- 
stroyed again by the Austrian Field°marshal 
Hiller in 1809, on the second advance of 
Napoleon to Vienna. With the exception 
of the old gate, through which the road 
leads to St. Polten and Gottweih, little re- 
mains to vouch for the antiquity of the 
town ; and the same may be said of Stein, 
under the walls of which we landed, — the 
gate facing the water, and the ruins of some 
old building near the bridge, being all the 
relics that " Goth and Time and Turk 
have spared" — I might add, Hungarian and 



STEIN. 257 

Swede, as Matthias Corvinus stormed it in 
I486, and Torstenson in 1645. So exas- 
perated was the latter by the opposition he 
met with, that when he at length entered 
the place, he took most sanguinary ven- 
geance upon the brave citizens. Stein is 
little more than one long, rambling street, 
over the vile flints of which, as we entered 
it, half a dozen poor old women, nearly all 
upon crutches, were hobbling in ludicrous 
haste after a dirty little ragamufBn, who, 
bearing the banner of some Saint, very like 
a red pocket handkerchief, appeared to 
enjoy the fruitless attempts of the unfor- 
tunate cripples to keep pace with him. 
On the young rascal went, at a sort of hand 
gallop, while they, like Johnson's " Panting 
Time, 5 ' 

" Toiled after him in vain." 

Quitting Stein at the eastern extremity of 
this long street, a walk of about ten mi- 
nutes conducts you through a pretty pro- 
menade, planted with trees, and called the 
little Prater, to the gates of Krems, the 
most considerable of these three small 
towns. It is first mentioned in the reign of 
Otto III. In the year 1347, its kennels 



258 AUSTRIA. 

ran with Hebrew blood. It was pretended 
that the Jews had poisoned the wells of 
the town ; and as any report, however ri- 
diculous, provided it afforded a pretext to 
insult and plunder that unfortunate people, 
was eagerly and implicitly believed by the 
brutal populace, an immediate slaughter 
took place of all who refused to acknow- 
ledge the divinity of Christ. Many wealthy 
Israelites being aware of the real motive 
of their persecutors, made their despair 
minister to their vengeance, and barring up 
themselves, their family, and their riches 
together, set fire to the building, and pe- 
rished exultingly in the flames that antici- 
pated the spoiler. The horrid frenzy ex- 
tended to Stein, Mautern, and many other 
places in the vicinity, and was only allayed 
by the arrival of the brave Erbschenk von 
Meissau who, by command of Albert II., 
hurried with a considerable force into the 
disturbed districts. Krems and Stein were 
heavily mulcted, and the neighbouring vil- 
lages, Loiben, Strassing, Rattendorf and 
Weinzierl, plundered by the soldiery of the 
blood-stained booty they had acquired. In 
the fifteenth century, Krems was twice be- 



KREMS. 259 

sieged by Matthias Corvinus, the last time 
successfully. On the invasion of Austria by 
the Bohemian Protestants in 1619, a corps 
of the insurgents under their Colonel, Car- 
pizan, having cut off the garrison of Krems, 
which had made a desperate sally from the 
town, immediately advanced to scale the 
now defenceless walls ; but the women with 
one consent, seizing the first weapons they 
could find, rushed to the ramparts, and 
fought with such steady bravery, that the 
enemy were at length obliged to abandon 
the attempt. To this memorable achieve- 
ment Ferdinand II. was in great measure 
indebted for the preservation of his empire ; 
for Krems being thus relieved, General 
Dampierre detached a body of five hun- 
dred horse to Vienna, at that time closely 
invested by Count Thurn. The Emperor, 
reduced to the last extremity, the walls of 
his palace battered by the Bohemian can- 
non, and echoing the reproachful shouts of 
his disaffected subjects, had resigned him- 
self to his fate, when the sudden blast of a 
trumpet announced the arrival of succour. 
The little squadron of horse having secretly 
descended the Danube, and entered the 



260 AUSTRIA. 

capital by the only gate unguarded by the 
enemy, was magnified into a mighty host 
by the fears of the malcontents, who dis- 
persed in every direction. The friends of 
the Emperor took courage, six hundred 
students flew to arms ; their example was 
followed by fifteen hundred citizens ; addi- 
tional succours arrived, and in a few hours 
all appearance of danger and discontent 
had subsided. 

Krems is the seat of what is termed in 
Austria a kreis-amtes, or council, having 
the government of one of the circles of the 
empire. Its jurisdiction extends over a 
fourth of Lower Austria, called the Viertel, 
or quarter of Ober-Manhardsberg. The 
principal public buildings are the Pfarre- 
kirche, built in 1464. the church of St. Ka- 
tharine, remarkable as having been origi- 
nally a residence of the knights-templars, a 
theatre, a gymnasium, and a cassino. The 
Austrian epicure is indebted to Krems for 
excellent mustard, and the sportsman for 
superior gunpowder; upwards of forty thou- 
sand florins worth of the former article is 
yearly made and sold in this town. The 
mustard is sent in its natural state from 



KLOSTER GOTTWEIH. 261 

Znaym, Rausenbruck, and various other 
parts of Moravia, and boiled at Krems 
with unfermented wine, which gives it its 
peculiar flavour. In a vineyard near Krems 
was formerly a well, the water of which 
was believed a sovereign specific for all 
disorders. The neighbouring capuchins of 
Und, who were the respectable vouchers 
for its efficacy, sold the pure element at a 
so large a price, that the Emperor Maxi- 
milian I. suddenly discovered the neces- 
sity for enacting a law, whereby the re- 
venue arising from this traffic was trans- 
ferred from the coffers of the church into 
those of the state, which, at the commence- 
ment of his reign, were not so likely to 
overflow from the addition. 

Wandering beneath the walls of Krems 
and Stein, we gazed with delight upon the 
beautifully situated monastery of Gott- 
weih. A short distance from the right 
bank behind Mautern, this immense build- 
ing stretched itself along the brow of a 
lofty, isolated mountain, clothed with 
waving woods, in the rich liveries of au- 
tumn, its countless windows splendidly 
illuminated by the descending sun. It 



262 AUSTRIA. 

dates no further back than the commence- 
ment of the eighteenth century, when it 
was built upon the site of an ancient kloster, 
originally founded by Altmann, Bishop of 
Passau, in 1083. There is a spring shown 
at the foot of the mountain, where this tur- 
bulent prelate, then only a student in theo- 
logy, entered into a compact with Adal- 
bert, afterwards Bishop of Wurzburg, and 
Gebhard, afterwards Bishop of Salzburg, 
by which they bound themselves to rise 
against the Emperor Henry IV., so soon as 
they should be appointed to their several 
sees ! — an extraordinary agreement which 
they religiously fulfilled ; and having suc- 
ceeded in stirring up his own son to re- 
bellion, compelled the unfortunate monarch, 
after a desperate struggle, to resign his 
crown at Ratisbon. Altmann, however, 
was not permitted to witness the triumph 
of his party ; the enraged Emperor deprived 
him of his bishopric in 1085, and he died 
six years afterwards in exile at Ziesel- 
mauer. 

Below Stein the Danube forms another 
archipelago, and during the remainder of 
a lovely evening, we glided between the 



TRASENMAUER. 263 

thickly-wooded islands, catching at long 
intervals a momentary glimpse of the red- 
tipped steeple of one of the many insigni- 
ficant villages which here line the main 
banks of the river, now as flat and uninter- 
esting as they were between Aschach and 
Ottensheim. The current at length lead- 
ing us near the right bank, we passed the 
markt and ruin of Holenburg ; the latter, 
during the fifteenth century, the strong* 
hold of two redoubted pirates, named 
Frohnauer and Vettau, — Wagram, (not the 
famous Wagram, there are six Wagrams in 
Austria,) St. Georgen, where Ulrich, Bishop 
of Passau, in 1109-12, built a celebrated 
kloster called St. Georg auf der Insel and 
Trasenmauer, at the mouth of the river 
Trasen, where, according to the Nibelun- 
gen-lied, Etzel, 

" The King of Hunnen-land 

Had a Castle wide 
Ycalled Traisenmauer*." 

Nearly facing the mouth of the Trasen, 
the little river Kamp discharges itself into 
the Danube, and, on doubling a small 
point of land, the village of Zwentendorf 

* Nibelung;en-lied,V. 3533-5. It was the residence of his 
first Queen, Helke, a lady of incomparable virtue. 



264 AUSTRIA. 

appeared on the right bank, and the moun- 
tains of the Wiener-Wald, arising in the 
distance, announced the vicinity of the 
capital. It was impossible, however, to 
reach it that evening, and therefore making 
for the little town of Tuln that lay directly 
before us in a sort of bay, we landed under 
the walls of a spacious building, the muti- 
lated colossal statues of saints, prelates, 
and monarchs, in front of which, bore testi- 
mony to its former grandeur, and groping 
our way through a narrow passage, emerged 
into the court-yard behind it, where stood 
the wretched auberge, in which our steers- 
man informed us we must pass the night. 
To our great relief, however, a red-elbowed, 
yellow-haired, blue-stockinged, round-about 
madchen, seizing a candle and a huge bunch 
of keys, recrossed the court with us to- 
wards the great building, and opening a 
postern door, which Mrs. RadclifFe would 
have worshipped, led the way up a winding 
staircase into a long gallery, hung with 
paintings of martyrdoms and miracles, 
fubsy virgins, and chubby cherubs, fat 
abbots, and fair nuns ; and ushered us into 
a wilderness of a chamber, furnished with 



TULN. 265 

one table and sixteen beds ! The astonish- 
ment of our guide must be imagined when 
my companion requested yet another room. 
The idea of separate chambers never en- 
tering her head, she naturally enough sup- 
posed that sixteen beds would surely be 
sufficient for two persons. However, as 
there was no accounting for the whims of 
foreigners, and as no other travellers were 
likely to arrive, she found another apart- 
ment for my friend, containing nine beds, 
and, with a stare of amazement I shall not 
speedily forget, after furnishing us with 
some coffee and another candle, left us to 
sleep in any or all of our twenty-five beds, 
as we might eventually determine. On 
mentioning this circumstance afterwards 
to a Viennese, I was assured that, had 
a larger company arrived, the remaining 
fifteen beds in my chamber would have 
been unceremoniously occupied by men or 
women, as it might have happened ; for, 
as he remarked to me, with the greatest 
coolness, " how would the poor people, 
who possess but two or three good rooms, 
be otherwise enabled to accommodate forty 
or fifty persons of both sexes, as they are 



266 AUSTRIA. 

frequently called upon to do ? " Whether 
the building itself was the Nonnen-Kloster 
founded by Rudolph of Hapsburg, in grati- 
tude for his victory over Ottocar, or the 
old Schloss, in which, every Monday, at 
midnight, the ghosts of a lady and her 
maid are in the habit of promenading*, I 
am to this moment ignorant. If the latter, 
it being Thursday, the ghosts were not on 
duty. TheLady-Moonalonepeeped through 
the long narrow casements ; the murmur of 
the stream that ran rapidly beneath them, 
was the only sound that mingled with my 
dreams. 

* I believe I should say were, for the Antiquary of the 
Danube informs us, that the lady's maid was exorcised by a 
" barefooted monk," and quietly, I presume, laid in the Red 
Sea. The ghost of quality alone was untractable. This 
spirit, it appears, had been dismissed from the body by an 
enraged husband, at the moment of an awkward discovery. 
The whole history, says the prudent antiquary, is to be found 
in the archives of a certain noble house ; but as it would 
redound to the prejudice of the descendants, should the name 
be made known, it has been passed over in silence. Some 
time ago an attempt was made to pull down the building, 
but the indignant phantom raised such a racket, that the 
workmen beat a retreat, and the project was abandoned. 



267 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Tuln. — Langenlebern.— Greifenstein. — Story of Etelina. — 
Korneuburg. — The Bisamberg. — Kloster Neuburg. — Leo- 
poldsberg, and the Khalenberg. — A glimpse of the capital. 
— Nusdorf. — Arrival at Vienna. — Bird's-eye view and de- 
scription of the environs from the Temple of Glory in the 
BrQhl. 

The chronicler Hagen says, that before 
Vienna was built, Tuln was the capital 
of Austria. There is no doubt it was a 
place of some consequence even in the 
time of the Romans. In the year 1813, a 
great number of silver coins of the reigns 
of Vespasian, Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan, 
were found in its neighbourhood. Attila 
is said to have experienced a defeat here, 
and upwards of forty thousand Huns in 
one battle to have found " the way to dusty 
death." Its authentic history commences, 
however, in the reign of Charlemagne, who 
gave the place to Passau in 803. Under 
the successors of Charlemagne, Tuln was 
the residence of their Grenz-Grafen, or 
Counts of the Border; and in 985, Henry II., 
Duke of Bavaria, held a Landtag or As- 



268 AUSTRIA. 

sembly of the States at Tuln, at which the 
Duke of Carinthia, the Pfalzgraf Berchtold, 
the Markgraf of Austria, and the Counts 
of Bavaria, appeared, and decided the claim 
of the Bishop of Passau to a linn-fishery 
in the neighbourhood. The Hungarians, 
in the winter of 1042, surprised and burnt 
the town, but were, by the Markgraves 
Albert and Gottfried, repulsed and pursued 
over the Leytna ; and the whole tract of 
country between Khalenberg and that 
river, was wrested from them for ever. 
In 1592, Tuln became the asylum of those 
who fled before the triumphant Botskai, 
on whose head the minister of Achmet had 
placed the ancient diadem of the despots of 
Servia, and who, though he refused the prof- 
fered titles of King of Hungary and Prince 
of Transylvania, terrified the feeble Em- 
peror Rodolph by planting the victorious 
standards of those revolted provinces within 
sight of the walls of Presburg. 

In 1683, the celebrated Sobieski joined, 
with his twenty-six thousand Poles, the 
troops collected here for the relief of Vienna, 
then invested by the Turks under Kara 



TULN. 269 

Mustapha. The Emperor Leopold, driven 
to despair, wrote himself to the King of 
Poland, imploring him to hasten to his 
assistance, without waiting for his army. 
" My troops/' said he, " are now assem- 
bling. The bridge over the Danube is al- 
ready constructed at Tuln, to afford you a 
passage. Place yourself at their head, 
however inferior in number ; your name 
alone, so terrible to the enemy, will ensure 
a victory ! " Sobieski, flattered by this en- 
treaty, issued orders to his army to follow 
him ; and, at the head of thirty-one thou- 
sand horse, traversed Silesia and Moravia 
with the rapidity of a Tartar horde, but, on 
his arrival at Tuln, found the bridge un- 
finished, and no troops, except a corps 
under the Duke of Lorraine. " Does the 
Emperor consider me as an adventurer ? " 
exclaimed the disappointed monarch. " I 
quitted my army to command his. It is 
not for myself, but for him, that I fight." 
Pacified, however, by the representations 
of the Duke of Lorraine, he awaited the 
arrival of his own army, which reached the 
Danube on the 5th of September, and the 
junction of the German succours was com- 



270 AUSTRIA. 

pleted on the 7th. Eight thousand Swa- 
bians and Franconians, twenty thousand 
Saxons and Bavarians, led by their Elec- 
tors, swelled the allied German army to 
the number of sixty thousand men. On the 
night of the 11th, the preconcerted signals 
revived the spirits of the garrison and citi- 
zens of Vienna; and, on the morning of the 
memorable 12th of September, they de- 
scried, with rapture, the Christian standards 
floating on the summit of the Khalenberg ! 
To the romantic traveller, Tuln is en- 
deared as the spot where the mighty Etzel 
met his matchless bride. Four and twenty 
princes were in the train of this powerful 
monarch, and twelve of the noblest received 
the priceless guerdon of a kiss from the lips 
of Chrimhilt. Lances were shivered, and 
harps were swept, in honour of the day. A 
thousand marks rewarded the royal min- 
strels, Swemmel and Werbel, and the lar- 
gess, to herald and serf, was worthy the 
hand of the richest and most powerful so- 
vereign 

" From the Rhone unto the Rhine — from the Elbe unto the 
sea." 

With spirits elevated by a morning of un- 



LANGENLEBERN. 271 

equalled beauty, and hearts throbbing with 
expectation, as every dip of the oar brought 
us nearer and nearer to the Austrian capi- 
tal, the spires of which, we fondly ima- 
gined, would rise to our view at each new 
bend of the river, we floated down the 
broad and glittering stream, now clear of 
islands, and hurrying to bathe the craggy 
feet of the advancing Wiener-Wald. 

Passing the long straggling village of 
Langenlebern, or, as it is otherwise called, 
Ober and Unter Aigen, where there was 
formerly a considerable establishment of 
gold-washers, (the waves of the Danube, 
like those of Pactolus, rolling sands rich 
with grains of the precious metal,) the 
splendour of sunrise appeared to change 
the whole flood into molten ore, and realize 
the wildest dreams of those modern Chry- 
sorrohee*. Below Langenlebern, on the 

* Much gold has really been found in the sands of the Da- 
nube, the Inn, and the Iser, and several gold-waschereys, as 
they are called, have formerly existed on the banks of these 
rivers. The peculiar wealth of the sands at Langenlebern has 
been accounted for, by the peasantry, from the circumstance 
of Draculf, Bishop of Freysing, being drowned off this bank, 
A. D. 926, and carrying down with him forty pounds weight 
of gold, which he had smuggled Out of the Kloster of Mos- 
burg, and had secured in his girdle ! 



272 AUSTRIA. 

right bank, is the ancient village of Zeisel- 
mauer, (supposed to be the Cetia of the 
Romans,) and celebrated as the birth-place 
of our old acquaintance, St. Florian. Here, 
in 1092, the rebel Bishop of Passau, Alt- 
mann, died, as I have before mentioned, in 
exile. We now rapidly approached the 
Riederberge, or mountains of the Wiener- 
Wald, as the forest-covered hills, that here 
overlook the Danube and Vienna, are in- 
differently called. Fragments of this rocky 
chain now lined the right bank of the river, 
which, for the first time since our leaving 
Ratisbon, surpassed the left in boldness and 
beauty. On one of these fragments rose 
the ruin of Greifenstein, one of the oldest 
castles in Austria, now the property of 
Prince Lichtenstein, who, having a great 
fancy for ruins, expends considerable sums 
in keeping up such as yet stand upon his 
estates, and in building new ruins, where 
there is a deficiency of old. In the Priel, 
or Bnihl, near Vienna, are several of these 
modern antiques, on which the venerable 
pile of the old family castle of Lichtenstein 
looks down, with as much contempt, as a re- 
suscitated Norman crusader would upon his 



GREIFENSTEIN. 273 

tinsel-clad theatrical representatives. Grei- 
fenstein was last ruined by the Swedes in 
1645, and is one of the castles named as 
having been the prison of Richard Cceur 
de Lion; nay, they even show an iron cage 
here, in which he is said to have been 
cooped. The ruins are reported to be 
haunted by an old white woman, and a 
legion of 

" Black spirits and white, 
Red spirits and grey," 

who do her awful bidding. This tradition 
has probably arisen from the circumstance 
of its last inhabitant having been an ancient 
gentlewoman, the Lady Bountiful of the 
neighbourhood, who devoted all her time 
to the cure of disorders, and was so gene- 
rally successful in the treatment of her 
numerous patients, that she was at length 
suspected of possessing supernatural power. 
At her death, therefore, instead of canon- 
izing her, as in duty bound, the ungrateful 
peasantry have converted the kind-hearted 
old lady, who was certainly " a spirit of 
health," into " a goblin damned;" and they 
are less excusable, as the castle is not in 
want of such an attraction, the terrein 

T 



274 AUSTRIA. 

being already occupied by as romantic a 
spectre as ever revisited " the glimpses of 
the moon, making night hideous !" The 
legend indeed attached to those venerable 
walls, is one of the most interesting on the 
Danube, and I cannot account for its omis- 
sion by the diligent Schultes. Thus it 
runs : — 

As early as the eleventh century the 
Lords of Greifenstein were famed and 
feared throughout Germany. One of the 
first knights who bore that name, lost his 
lady soon after she had presented him with 
a daughter, who received the name of 
Etelina. The dying mother, painfully aware 
how little attention would be paid to the 
education of a female by a rude and reck- 
less father, half knight, half freebooter, 
however fond he might be of his child, 
had recommended her infant, with her 
last breath, to the care of a kind and 
pious monk, the chaplain of the castle; and 
under his affectionate guidance, the pretty 
playful girl gradually ripened into the 
beautiful and accomplished woman. Sir 
Reinhard of Greifenstein, though stern, tur- 
bulent, and unlettered himself, was, never- 



GREIFENSTEIN. 275 

theless, sensible to the charms and intelli- 
gence of his daughter ; and often as he 
parted her fair hair and kissed her ivory- 
forehead, before he mounted the steed or 
entered the bark, that waited to bear him 
to the hunt or the battle, a feeling of which 
he was both proud and ashamed would 
moisten his eye and subdue a voice natu- 
rally harsh and grating, into a tone almost 
of tenderness. On his return, weary and 
sullen, from a fruitless chase or a baffled 
enterprise, the song of Etelina could banish 
the frown from his brow, when even the 
wine-cup had been thrust untasted away, 
and the favourite hound beaten for a mis- 
timed gambol. So fair a flower, even in 
the solitary castle of Greifenstein, was not 
likely to bloom unknown or unsought. The 
fame of Etelina 5 s beauty spread through- 
out the land. Many a noble knight shouted 
her name as his bright sword flashed from 
the scabbard, and many a gentle squire 
fought less for his gilt spurs, than the 
smile of Etelina. The minstrel who sang 
her praises had aye the richest largess, and 
the little-foot page who could tell where 
she might be met with in the summer's 

T 2 



276 AUSTRIA. 

twilight, clinging to the arm of the silver- 
haired chaplain, might reckon on a link of 
his master's chain of gold for every word 
he uttered. But the powerful and the 
wealthy sighed at her feet in vain — she 
did not scorn them, for so harsh a feeling 
was unknown to the gentle Etelina. Nay, 
she even wept over the blighted hopes of 
some, whose fervent passion deserved a 
better fate ; but her heart was no longer hers 
to give. She had fixed her affections upon 
the poor but noble Rudolph, and the lovers 
awaited impatiently some turn of fortune 
which would enable them to proclaim their 
attachment without fear of the anger and 
opposition of Sir Reinhard, who was con- 
siderably annoyed by Etelina's rejection of 
many of the richest Counts and Barons of 
Germany. 

Business of importance summoned the 
old knight to the court of the Emperor. His 
absence, prolonged from month to month, 
afforded frequent opportunities of meeting 
to the lovers ; and the venerable monk, on 
whom the entire charge of the castle and its 
inhabitants had devolved at Sir Reinhard's 
departure, was one evening struck dumb 



GREIFENSTEIN. 277 

with terror, by the confession which circum- 
stances at length extorted from the lips of 
Etelina! Recovered from the first shock, 
however, his affection for his darling pupil 
seemed only increased, by the peril into 
which passion had plunged her. In the 
chapel of the castle, he secretly bestowed 
the nuptial benediction upon the imprudent 
pair, and counselled their immediate flight 
and concealment, till his prayers and tears 
should wring forgiveness and consent from 
Sir Reinhard, who was now on his return 
home, accompanied by a wealthy nobleman, 
on whom he had determined to bestow the 
hand of his daughter. Scarcely had Ru- 
dolph and Etelina reached the cavern in 
the neighbouring wilderness, selected for 
their retreat by the devoted old man, who 
had furnished them with provisions, a lamp 
and some oil, promising to supply them 
from time to time with the means of exist- 
ence, as occasions should present them- 
selves, when the rocks of the Danube rang 
with the well-known blast of Sir Reinhard's 
trumpet, and a broad banner lazily unfold- 
ing itself to the morning breeze, displayed 
to the sight of the wakeful warden the two 



278 AUSTRIA. 

red griffins rampant in a field vert, the 
blazon of the far-feared Lords of Greifen- 
stein *. In a few moments the old knight 
was galloping over the drawbridge, fol- 
lowed by his intended son-in-law. 

The clatter of their horses' hoofs struck 
upon the heart of the conscious chaplain, 
as though the animals themselves were 
trampling on his bosom ; but he summoned 
up his resolution, and relying on his sacred 
character, met his master with a firm step 
and a calm eye, in the hall of the castle. 
Evading a direct answer to the first inquiry 
for Etelina, he gradually and cautiously in- 
formed Sir Eeinhard of her love, her mar- 
riage, and her flight. Astonishment for a 
short space held the old warrior spell bound, 
but when his gathered fury at last found 
vent, the wrath of the whirlwind was less 
terrible. He seized the poor old monk by 
the throat, and upon his firm refusal to re- 
veal the retreat of the culprits, dashed him 
to the earth, had him bound hand and 
foot, and flung into a pit beneath an iron 

* On some old weapons in the Riistkammer or armoury of 
the castle, the arms of the house of Greifenstein are yet to be 
seen so blazoned. 



GREIFENSTEIN. 279 

grating in the floor of the donjon or keep 
of the castle*. Tearing, like an infuriated 
Pasha, " his very beard for ire," he called 
down curses on Etelina and her husband, 
and prayed that, if ever he forgave them, a 
dreadful and sudden death might overtake 
him on the spot where he should revoke 
the malediction he now uttered ! Upwards 
of a year had elapsed when, one winter- 
day, the knight of Greifenstein, pursuing the 
chase, lost his way in the mazes of a wil- 
derness on the banks of the Danube. A 
savage-looking being, half clothed in skins, 
conducted him to a cavern, in which a 
woman similarly attired was seated on the 
ground, with an infant on her knees, and 
greedily gnawing the bones of a wolf. — 
Sir Keinhard recognised in the squalid form 
before him his once beautiful Etelina. — 
Shocked to the soul at the sight of the 
misery to which his severity had reduced 
her, he silently motioned to the huntsmen, 

* A square hole in the earth with an iron grating over it is 
still shown here as the place of confinement of some clergy- 
man, who shared his crust with a young snake, that thrived 
so wonderfully upon prison allowance, that self-preservation 
at last compelled him to kill it while asleep with a stick, that 
is also shown in the dungeon. 



280 AUSTRIA. 

who came straggling in upon his track to 
remove the wretched pair and their poor 
little offspring to the castle. Moved by 
the smiles of his innocent and uncon- 
scious grandchild, he clasped his repentant 
daughter to his bosom, as she re-crossed 
the threshold^ bore her up into the banquet- 
hall, and consigning her to the arms of her 
faithful Rudolph, hastened down again to 
release with his own hands the true-hearted 
monk, who still languished in captivity. 
In descending the steep staircase, his foot 
slipped, and he was precipitated to the 
bottom — his fall was unseen — his cry was 
unheard — dying, he dragged himself a few 
paces along the pavement, and expired 
upon the very spot where he had just em- 
braced and forgiven his daughter. Ru- 
dolph, now Lord of Greifenstein, restored 
the chaplain to liberty, and lived long and 
happily with his beloved Etelina ; but the 
spirit of Sir Reinhard to this day wanders 
about the ruins of his ancestral castle, and 
will continue so to do till the stone whereon 
he expired shall be worn in twain. " Alas ! 
poor ghost !" the very slight hollow which 
is at present perceivable in it, affords you 



KORNEUBURG. 281 

little hope of its division by fair means 
previously to the general " crack of doom.'' 
Near the village of Hofelein, the river 
suddenly wheels to the south, and the last 
grand picture of the series opens before 
you. On the left is the little town of 
Korneuburg, backed by the vine-covered 
Bisamberg, and embosomed in beautiful 
groves and orchards. On the right, arise the 
gilded domes of Kloster-Neuburg, and far 
above them, in the blue distance, tower the 
colossal Khalenberge, " the watchmen of 
Vienna," crowned with their churches, and 
terminating a chain of alps and mountains, 
that, stretching across Southern Europe, 
links the Danube with the Gulph of Genoa. 
There was something peculiarly exciting in 
the scene. I was floating upon waves that 
were rushing to the Euxine, and gazing 
upon a line of hills that extended to the 
Mediterranean. I could almost fancy the 
clash of Turkish cymbals, mingled with 
the murmur of the water, while the sound 
of mandolin and castagnet was faintly 
wafted on the breeze from the land. The 
former flight may, at least, be forgiven me 
in such a situation ; for these shores have 



282 AUSTRIA. 

but too often echoed the wild marches of 
the Ottoman, and the trembling waves re- 
flected the glittering crescent. The black 
horse-tails of many a proud Pasha have 
streamed insultingly from yonder heights, 
the sable heralds of death and desola- 
tion. The " high-capped Tartar" has here 
" spurred his steed away," and the shout 
of 

" God and the Prophet ! — Allah hu !" 

shaken like an earthquake the throne of 
the Caesars. 

Korneuburg is the seat of theKreis-amtes 
for the quarter of Unter-Manhardsberg. In 
1306, it was the scene of one of those hor- 
rid massacres, which invariably, during the 
middle ages, cancelled the debts of Chris- 
tendom to the House of Israel. The same 
blasphemous falsehood, which thirty years 
afterwards deluged the streets of Deggen- 
dorf with Hebrew blood, was here made 
the pretence for burning alive all the un- 
fortunate Jews in the place. The Emperor 
Frederick IV. here met his deliverer, 
George Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, A.D. 
1462, whose prompt assistance compelled 
Albert of Austria, the Emperor's brother, 



KORNEUBURG. 283 

to raise the siege of Vienna, (in the citadel 
of which Frederick was shut up with only- 
two hundred men,) to restore the towns, 
fortresses and countries he had taken pos- 
session of during this unnatural contest, and 
pay an annual sum of four thousand ducats 
o theEmperor for the government of Lower 
Austria. In 1477, Korneuburg was be- 
sieged by Matthias Corvinus ; and the brave 
Austrian commandant, Enenkel, received 
his death-wound from an arrow that en- 
tered an embrasure through which he was 
reconnoitring the enemy. It was again be- 
sieged by Corvinus in 1484, and stood out 
till the very vermin of the town became 
the food of the famished garrison ; and in 
the seventeenth century, the Swedes, who 
had taken and shut themselves up in the 
place, after an equally stubborn resistance, 
capitulated upon honourable terms. On 
the Bisamberg, which rises behind it, are 
the finest vineyards in the neighbourhood 
of Vienna. The wine they yield is con- 
sidered the best of what are called the 
Danube wines ; the next in celebrity are 
Kloster-Neuburger, Grinzinger, (a very 
pleasant wine,) Maurer,. and Brunner, all 



284 AUSTRIA. 

grown on the right bank. On the summit 
of the Bisamberg, formerly stood the old 
castle of the knights of Pucinperche, or 
Busenberge, and near it rises the little 
Busenbach, that ripples through three chan- 
nels into the Danube. At its foot is Lang- 
Enzersdorf, the first post station from 
Vienna on the road to Prague. Part of 
Kara-Mustapha's army crossed the Danube 
here during the siege of Vienna, and re- 
duced the place to ashes. Nearly opposite 
to Lang-Enzersdorf, stands the unfinished 
but magnificent Kloster-Neuburg, and 
the little town to which it has given 
its name*. The Kloster was originally 
founded by Leopold the Saint, in conse- 
quence of his wife's veil, which had been 
blown away as she was walking on the 
Khalenberg, being wafted to this spot, and 
discovered some time after, hanging on an 
elder-tree, by one of the Markgraf s hounds ! 
— So miraculous and interesting an occur- 
rence was deemed worthy of commemo- 
ration. A convent was immediately built 
and endowed by the pious Markgraf; and 

* It was originally called Neuenburg, Neuenburch, and 
Niwenburg, and appears to have been strongly fortified. 



LEOPOLDSBERG. 285 

the monks enshrined the elder-tree in gold 
wire-work, and imitated its blossoms with 
pearls *. Our boat now passed under the 
precipices of the Leopoldsberg. The two 
last mountains of the Wiener- Wald have 
both received the appellation of Khalenberg 
or Kalte-Berg. But the ancient Khalenberg 
is now known by the name of the Leopolds- 
berg, and by the Khalenberg is generally 
understood the former Josephsberg, the 
second mountain from the bank of the 
Danube. 

On the summit of the present Leopolds- 
berg, originally stood the Castle of Leo- 
pold the Saint ; and from that castle, long 
before Vienna was built, the Markgraf is- 
sued to hunt in the neighbouring forests, 
and sometimes pursued his game over the 
plain whereon the capital of Austria now 
spreads its interminable suburbs. In 1291, 
Albert L, Duke of Austria, sought refuge 
in this fortress from the revolted citizens 
of Vienna ; and summoning reinforcements 



* Albert IV., Duke of Austria, died here on the 14th of 
September, 1404, in the twenty-seventh year of his age; and 
the Empress Wilhelmina Amelia, widow of Joseph I., also 
ended her days here in April 1742. 



286 AUSTRIA. 

from Swabia, cut off all aid and provisions 
from the rebels, and compelled them at last 
to an unconditional surrender. The princi- 
pal magistrates came bare-headed and bare- 
footed, to his camp, and in their presence 
he tore up the charters of the city,and abro- 
gated all those privileges which he deemed 
injurious to his authority. During the reign 
of Albert III., the castle fell into decay, 
and lay in ruins nearly fifty years, when 
it was rebuilt by Albert V. Ruined again 
by the wars of the fifteenth century, the 
Emperor Leopold I. determined to erect 
upon its site a chapel, in honour of his an- 
cestor and patron. Before the work was com- 
pleted, however, the Turks had burst into 
Austria, and during the siege of Vienna, 
destroyed the unfinished chapel as well as 
the few remaining walls of the old castle. 
The Saxons, who fought in the left wing 
of the army of relief, carried the Turkish 
positions on this mountain by storm, and 
drove them with much slaughter out of the 
ruins in which they had entrenched them- 
selves. On the flight of the infidels, Leo- 
pold recommenced building his chapel, but 
it was finished by his son Charles VI., under 



LEOPOLDSBERG. 287 

the superintendence of the Italian architect 
Beluzzi, who also built a palace near it 
by the Emperor's order, and twelve years 
afterwards erected the present church upon 
the site of the chapel. The monks of 
Kloster-Neuburg, who had installed them- 
selves in these edifices, were afterwards 
expelled by Joseph II. *, and the church 
and palace became the property of Prince 
de Ligne, the historian. His highness con- 
siderably improved the grounds about it, 
and it has become a favourite resort of the 
Viennese, who flock up the mountain on a 
fine summer day, to enjoy the magnificent 
prospect from its summit, or from the little 
Belvedere that overhangs the Danube. On 

* This Emperor, who, to use his own words, " with the 
best intentions, never carried a single project into execution," 
in his laudable attempts to purify religion from the dregs of 
superstition, reduced the number of convents in Austria from 
two thousand and twenty-four, to seven hundred. Vide Coxe's 
History of the House of Austria. The learned Archdeacon 
has justly and eloquently described the character of the kind- 
hearted but inconsistent Joseph ; but I am at a loss to know 
why a Christian minister should include the following ordi- 
nance amongst " the childish and ridiculous regulations" of 
the Emperor. " Thou shalt forbear all occasions of dispute 
relative to matters of faith ; and thou shalt, according to 
the true principles of Christianity, affectionately and kindly 
treat those who are not of thy communion/' (Ord. October 
24, 1781.) 



288 . AUSTRIA. 

the outside of the building in which the 
prince resided, are several inscriptions ; 
amongst others his favourite motto, 

" Quo res cumque cadunt, semper stat linea recta ;" 

and the words 

" Chateau de mon refuge." 

On the side facing the Danube are the 
following truly French lines, in allusion to 
the various fortunes which have attended 
the building. 

" Margraves, Polonais, Turcs et Saints, tour a tour, 
Rendirent autrefois celebre ce sejour ; 
C'est a present celui de la philosophie, 
Du calme de l'esprit, du bonheur de la vie. 
Notre ame s'aggrandit par des grands souvenirs, 
Mais la meilleure histoire est celui des plaisirs. 
Sans remords, sans regrets, sans crainte et sans envie 
La nature se montre en son bel appareil 
Et 1 on se croit ici favori du soleil." 

On the ceiling of the Belvedere is inscribed 

" Optimis Vindobonensibus 
Carolus Princeps de Ligne." 

On the Khalenberg, as the Josephsberg 
is now called, stands what was formerly 
a monastery, founded by Ferdinand II. in 
1628. Leopold I. re-established it after 
the siege of Vienna; Joseph I. enlarged, 
and Joseph II. suppressed it. Like the 
building on the Leopoldsberg, it was pur- 
chased by the Prince de Ligne, and is a 



NUSSDORF. 289 

point of reunion for the holiday makers of 
the capital. 

Below the Leopoldsberg, the Danube is 
divided into three large branches, and on 
entering the southern branch the great dark 
spire of St. Stephen's suddenly appeared 
between the trees on the left bank, and 
other spires and domes gliding gradually 
into view, we looked at length upon Vienna ! 
Impatiently did we pace the bank at Nuss- 
dorf, a little village on the right of the 
stream, about an hour's journey from the 
walls of the city, where all boats are 
obliged to stop till passports are examined, 
and permission given to proceed to what is 
called the Schanzel landing-place, near the 
Ferdinand's Briiche (Bridge of Ferdinand.) 
Nearly an hour and a half were we de- 
tained at this place, within sight of the 
goal we were burning to reach. The papers 
at length arrived; our crew once more 
plied their paddles, and through the crowd 
of boats moored on each side of the river, 
we advanced slowly, catching occasional 
glimpses of new buildings and towers, as 
they appeared between the tall stacks of 
firewood that line the banks of this arm of 

u 



290 AUSTRIA. 

the Danube. Suddenly we found ourselves 
under the walls of the city, and about 
twenty minutes afterwards, having followed 
a custom-house officer to the mauth of the 
Schanzel, where our baggage underwent 
strict examination, we entered the gates, 
the way to our hotel being marshalled by 
a good-natured Italian, who had volun- 
teered his services at the custom-house. 
Previously, however, to quitting the boat, 
the three poor women, whom we had taken 
on board at Marsbach, perceiving their 
journey ended, requested to know what 
they had to pay. On being, with some 
difficulty, made to understand that they 
were perfectly welcome to their passage, 
their joy was extravagant. They clapped 
their own hands, and kissed ours repeat- 
edly, (the usual mode of expressing thanks 
in Austria,) and with a chorus of " Das ist 
schon! Das ist schon*!" shouldered their 
heavy bundles, and shuffled away in high 
glee. 

Preceded by our Italian guide, and fol- 
lowed by the two steersmen and their 
crew carrying our luggage, we bustled 

* s< That's fine ! 3 ' or, as we should say, " capital/' 



VIENNA. 291 

through the crowded streets of Vienna, 
and crossing the square, in the centre of 
which stands the fine old cathedral of St. 
Stephen, entered the Weyburg Gasse, and 
were soon comfortably installed in the 
Hotel of the Kaiserinn von Osterreich (the 
Empress of Austria.) Gentle reader, I 
have now landed you, with myself, safely in 
Vienna. Do not imagine, because I have 
been, perhaps, tediously minute in my 
descriptions up to this period, that I am 
about to enter upon a long-winded geo- 
graphical, statistical, historical account of 
" the habitation of the Caesars." We are 
now upon beaten ground, and even pre- 
suming that you are unacquainted with it, 
there are dozens of guides much better 
calculated to do the honours and show the 
lions of Vienna than your humble servant. 
I shall therefore take the liberty, before 
I make my final bow, and hand you over 
to the acute Russel, the pleasant Ramblers 
in Germany, either military or musical — 
the caustic author of ' Austria as it is, 5 or 
any other intelligent tourist — to waft you at 
once to the pinnacle of a steep hill in that 

gorge of the Wienerwald called the Briihl 

u 2 



292 AUSTRIA. 

or the Priel, behind the very ancient and 
picturesque little town of Mohdling. There 
you are — on the steps of the " Temple of 
Glory," a handsome Doric building erected 
by the present Prince Lichtenstein to the 
memory of the brave hussars who rescued 
him, at the expense of their lives, from the 
French in the battle of Wagram. On the 
wall of a vault, beneath the building, where 
their bodies are deposited, is the follow- 
ing affecting inscription : — " Softly repose 
upon this height, precious remains of the 
valiant Austrian warriors, who fell, covered 
with glory, at Aspern and Wagram. Your 
friend is ntft able to reanimate the lifeless 
bodies. To honour them is his duty*." 

As he turns from perusing these lines, 
as honourable to the dictator of them as 
to the brave men to whom they allude, the 
moistened eye of the stranger wanders 
over the immense prospect below him, and 
falls upon the very scene of their valour 
and their death. Yonder stretches the 
wide plain upon which the fate of Austria 

* " Ruhet sanft auf diesen hohen edle gebeine tapferer 
Oesterreichs Krieger ; Ruhm bedeckt bey Aspern und Wa- 
gram gefallen vermag euer freund nicht, die entseelten 
leichname zu beleben ; sie zu ehren ist seine pflicht." 



ISLAND OF LOEAU, 293 

has been twice decided. Rudolph of 
Hapsburg, the founder of its noble house, 
there wrested the duchy and the crown of 
the empire from Ottokar, king of Bohe- 
mia, on August 26th, A. D. 1278. 

On the 5th of July, five hundred and 
thirty-one years afterwards, the descendant 
of Rudolph saw that duchy and crown at 
the mercy of an adventurer, who had, for 
the second time, driven him from his capi- 
tal, and now threatened the utter extinc- 
tion of his dynasty. There is the cele- 
brated island of Lobau, out of which, after 
its critical escape, the French army crossed 
the Danube amid night and storm, by the 
dreadful light of the blazing town of En- 
zersdorf, into the plain of Morava, the des- 
tined arena of that decisive combat. 

" All was prepared — the fire, the sword, the men 
To wield them in their terrible array. 
The army, like a lion from his den, 
Marched forth with nerve and sinews bent to slay,— 
A human Hydra, issuing from its fen 
To breathe destruction on its winding way. 

The night was dark, and the thick mist allowed 
Nought to be seen save the artillery's flame, 
Which arched the horizon like a fiery cloud, 
And in the Danube's waters shone the same — 
A mirrored Hell ! The volleying roar, and loud 
Long booming of each peal on peal, o'ercame 



294 AUSTRIA. 

The ear far more than thunder, for Heaven's flashes 
Spare or smite rarely — Man's make millions ashes!" 
Don Juan, Canto 8, st. 2. 6. 

There are the little villages of Essling, 
Aspern, and Wagram, whose names, like 
those of the still more insignificant hamlets 
of Blenheim and Waterloo, are ineffaceably 
inscribed on the tablets of Fame, though 
scarcely to be distinguished in the map of 
Europe. Do you mark that white building 
a little on this side of the city, looking, 
from the height on which we stand, like the 
card-house of an infant ? The sun now falls 
upon something like a triumphal arch, on 
an elevation immediately behind it — that 
is Schonbrunn, with its well-known Glo- 
riette. In that palace, is a fair-haired boy, 
the son of the victor in that terrible fight, 
and of the daughter of the vanquished. To 
that fight he owes his existence. Its issue 
enabled a low-born Corsican to dictate 
terms to one of the most powerful monarchs 
in the world, and mingle his blood with 
that of a line of emperors. Let us turn 
from these scenes of strife and " vaulting 
ambition, which o'erleaps itself," to the 
forest-covered hills around, and the lovely 
vallies beneath us. At the foot of thatmoun- 



BADEN. 295 

tain lie the sulphur-baths of Baden, and 
beside them opens the beautiful Helen-thai, 
at the mouth of which resides the brave 
and popular Archduke Charles, the gallant, 
though unsuccessful, opponent of Napo- 
leon. His chateau is named Wildburg, in 
honour of his Archduchess, a princess of 
the House of Nassau -Wildburg. There is 
scarcely any garden-ground belonging to 
it, and he, therefore, good-naturedly makes 
a garden of the whole valley, and gives the 
public the benefit of it. 

Every morning, during the season, the 
visiters of this fashionable watering-place 
flock by dozens to a farm-house, belonging 
to the Baron von Dopplehof, where they 
eat the best bread in Europe, and sip 
coffee, diluted with most delicious milk, 
furnished by fifty Styrian cows, all of that 
light dun colour which particularly distin- 
guishes the race. The day is divided 
between the bath and the shades of the 
Helen-thai ; and, as evening advances, the 
gay groups saunter back along the banks 
of the rivulet that brawls through this 
romantic glen, and drop leisurely into the 
pretty little theatre of Baden. Russel has 



296 AUSTRIA. 

drawn an animated and faithful picture of 
this spot. I shall, therefore, only mention 
a ridiculous circumstance which occurred 
here a few years ago. The old wooden 
bridge over the rivulet I have just men- 
tioned, had been replaced by one of cast 
iron; and the completion of this work 
being an important era for the little town, 
a procession was formed to open the bridge, 
and the whole neighbourhood collected on 
and round it to witness the ceremony. 
One of the Archdukes (Anthony, I believe) 
headed the cortege, and, after it had passed 
over, the burgomaster, standing in the 
centre of the bridge, harangued the spec- 
tators. His speech was a model for suc- 
ceeding burgomasters, to fashion their ora- 
tions by. The crowd pressed nearer and 
nearer to listen, and be edified. The wor- 
thy officer warmed with his subject; he 
became absolutely figurative. " Our gra- 
titude, our attachment (exclaimed he, in a 
transport of loyalty) to the illustrious 
House of Hapsburg, shall remain firm and 
unshaken as this bridge ! !' but, before he 
had well finished his sentence, down went 
bridge, burgomaster, and audience, into 



CASTLE OF LICHTENSTEIN, 297 

the water. Whether naturally sinking 
under the weight of the crowd, or kicked 
down by Lucifer himself, who, a rebel 
from the first, might have enjoyed the 
consternation attendant on so ominous a 
coincidence, remains to be determined. A 
clumsy bridge of stone now spans the little 
stream of the Schwachat. To the left, 
almost immediately beneath us, upon a 
green knoll, surrounded by gardens, stands 
the venerable ruin of Lichtenstein, the 
castle of the ancient princes of that name ; 
and, facing it, the modern chateau of their 
descendants. The old walls are in good 
preservation, and the various apartments 
clearly distinguishable. The chamber of 
justice, into which the criminal was drawn 
up by a rope from the prison beneath it, 
through a hole in the floor; the prison 
itself, with its iron rings and staples ; and 
the banquet hall, now hung with full-length 
portraits of the family, (none of them, by 
the way, painted earlier than the sixteenth 
century, though some profess to represent 
persons who lived in the fourteenth,) are 
all exceedingly interesting. Beyond it, on 
the bank of the river, lies the broad city, 



298 AUSTRIA. 

the huge cathedral shooting up its dark 
spire in the centre. From a grated win- 
dow in that spire, the faithful Starrhemberg 
saw the sun rise every morning upon that 
vast plain, whitened with the tents of the 
Moslem, and watched night after night for 
the joyful signals of relief. They rose at 
length. From those heights, the gallant 
Sobieski rushed upon the panic-stricken 
Vizier, who, abandoning his camp and his 
treasures to the victorious Pole, fled like a 
tiger baffled in his spring. On the high 
road to Carinthia and Italy, that runs pa- 
rallel with this chain of mountains, you may 
observe a slender Gothic cross, that is to 
say, one of those crocketted pyramids, sur- 
mounted with a small cross, which are so 
called, and to be seen in many of our own 
market towns. It is the Spinnerinn-am- 
Kreutz, and, according to the legend, marks 
the spot on which a maiden vowed to sit 
and spin till her lover returned from the 
holy land. Smile not so contemptuously ; 
if you are proof against " a ballad in print," 
there is also an historical interest attached 
to that lonely monument. It commemo- 
rates the retreat of Solyman the Magnifi- 



LAXENDORF. 299 

cent, and the valour of an ancestor of the 
princely House of Schwartzenburg. For 
thirty days, 

" Amid the vale below, 
Tents rose, and streamers play'd, 
And javelins sparkled in the sun, 
And multitudes encamped, 
Swarmed far as eye could follow o'er the plain ; 
There, in his war-pavilion, sat, 
In council with his chiefs, 
The Sultan of the Land!" 

Foiled in every assault by the skill of the 
commandant, Nicholas Count of Salm, by 
the courage of the garrison, and the loyalty 
of the burghers, the advance of winter, 
and the dread of approaching succours, com- 
pelled him to raise the siege, and to retreat 
toBuda, A.D. 1529. 

Still farther eastward lies the little village 
of Laxendorf, with the summer palace and 
gardens of Laxenburg, a favourite retreat 
of the Emperor, and something between 
the well-known Petit-Trianon at Versailles, 
and the grander Wilhelmshoe at Hessen- 
CasseL Inferior to them both in situation, it 
combines many of their separate attractions: 
there are the rustic bridges, and Swiss cot- 
tages of the former, and the modern antique 
castle of the latter. Instead of the splendid 



300 AUSTRIA. 

waterworks of Wilhelmshoe, you must be 
contented, however, with the calm, clear 
lakes of Laxendorf, in which myriads of 
enormous carp battle for the large crusts 
flung to them by the guide, their scaly 
armour glittering in the sun, like 

" Mingled metal damasked o'er with gold." 

In the centre of one of these lakes rises 
an island fortress. At a given signal a 
boat pushes off from the Watergate, you 
are ferried over, and enter the court-yard of 
the building, which is fitted up in strict 
conformity to the taste of the middle ages. 
Like the Lowenburg at Wilhelmshoe, all 
the furniture of this fortress is really an- 
tique — the carved oaken ceilings and 
wainscots having been brought from sup- 
pressed monasteries and demolished castles. 
The beds, chairs, tables, &c, collected in a 
similar manner, are also extremely curious. 
Around the skirting-board of one of the 
apartments on the ground floor, is a most 
interesting painting of a procession to the 
lists, of the time of Maximilian L, and 
resembling in some degree the prints of his 
" Triumph" by Hans Burgmair. The he- 
ralds and pursuivants, habited alternately 



LAXENDORF. 301 

in the colours of the empire and the duchy, 
are followed by the Emperor himself, 
armed at all points for the tournament, 
and twenty or thirty knights, riding in 
couples, their ponderous tilting helmets 
crested and garlanded in the elaborate 
German fashion, and their horses splendid 
with engraved chanfrons and emblazoned 
housings. The procession is closed by 
the priest and the surgeon, and the Todt- 
wagen, or hearse to carry away the slain 
champions ! A long narrow gallery, on the 
highest floor of the building, hung with the 
costumes of all the European nations du- 
ring the sixteeth century, leads to a dimly- 
lighted, unfurnished turret-chamber, the 
only ornaments of which are three small 
half-length portraits of Phillip II. of Spain, 
his queen Isabel, and his unfortunate son 
Don Carlos. The gloom of the chamber, 
its desolate appearance, so opposite to that 
of the other apartments, which are profusely 
decorated and furnished ; the three pale 
faces of the principal actors in that most 
dreadful of domestic tragedies, glaring at 
one another from the opposite walls, send 
a cold shudder through your frame ; and 



302 AUSTRIA. 

you hasten from the spot, as though 
murder had been freshly committed there, 
and the dark shadow of the retiring 
assassin was yet gliding along the floor of 
the adjacent gallery ! The Knight's Castle, 
as that building is called, has also its state 
apartments ; its chamber of justice ; its 
prison with a puppet prisoner, (the only 
piece of bad taste about it,*) and its ar- 
moury. The latter contains some hand- 
some fluted and embossed suits, but no- 
thing particularly ancient -f; throughout 
Germany, the richest suit of armour, what- 
ever may be its date, is invariably appro- 
priated to the Emperor Maximilian, though 
in the same collection ; and standing next 
to it, is a suit which probably did belong 
to him, or, at least, is of the same period. 
From the Knight's Castle, you are led to 

* Yes, there is another. On the gates of the castle are 
daubed two sentinels armed cap h pied! Forcibly recalling to 
my memory the figures painted in the sentry-boxes, which 
were wont to delight and terrify me when an urchin, and 
cause many a clandestine expedition to Bayswater tea-gar- 
dens. 

t The oldest piece of armour I have seen in Germany, is 
in the collection at the Lowenburg, at Wilhelmshoe. It is a 
moveable visor of the close of the fourteenth century ; but both 
possessors and exhibitors are evidently ignorant of its value 
and antiquity. 



LAXENDORF. 303 

the Knight's Chapel, his tilt-yard, and his 
farm ; the upper apartments of the latter are 
filled with ancient cabinets, paintings, and 
curiosities of every description, Laxendorf 
is first mentioned by old Minnesanger 
Tanhuser, who, having wandered from land 
to land, and from court to court, and seen, 
as he himself informs us, Crete, Jerusalem, 
Cyprus, Normandy, Antioch, Coblenz (!), 
Rome, and Pisa, came to Vienna during 
the reign of the Emperor Frederick II., 
who highly patronized him, and gave him 
a residence in the capital, and other pro- 
perty in its neighbourhood. 

" Zu Wiene hat ich einen Hof 
Der lag so rechte schone ; 
Lupolzdorf was darzuo min 
Das lit (liegt) bi Luchse nahen ; 
Ze Hinperg hat ich schone guot," &c. 

Laxendorf, lying close by Leopoldsdorf 
and Himperg, is evidently the Luchse of 
our fortunate Minnesanger ; and, towards 
the close of the thirteenth century, we find 
the name of one Pertold, of Lachsindorf. 
In 1330, Albert IL, surnamed the Lame, 
Duke of Austria, possessed a castle at 
Lachsindorf, and Duke Albert III., " with 



304 AUSTRIA. 

the tress," built a new castle upon the site 
of the old one, and had the magnificent 
furniture and valuable antiquities which 
had previously adorned Saint Leopold's 
castle on the Khalenberg, removed to this 
place, which became his favourite resi- 
dence ; where, shaking off as much as pos- 
sible the cares of sovereignty and secular 
pomp, he worked in the garden with his 
own hands, and, studying Palladius on ru- 
ral economy, amused himself with planting 
and horticulture. Its marshy situation, 
however, is supposed to have shortened the 
life of this amiable prince. Seized, during 
an expedition into Bohemia, with a mortal 
disorder, of which he had here laid the 
foundation, he was conveyed back in haste 
to Laxendorf, and died on the 29th of 
August, 1395, aged forty-six, amid the la- 
mentations of the citizens of Vienna, who 
crowded round his corse, exclaiming, " We 
have lost our friend, our true father ! " 

In 1683, the Turks laid Laxendorf in 
ashes. It was rebuilt by the Emperor 
Leopold L; and his son Charles IV., in 
his brown surtout and bag-wig, here de- 



LAXENDORF. 305 

lighted to " bait the heron." Joseph II. 
turned the old blaue-haus*, which was for- 
merly the falconry, into the imperial resi- 
dence. The Gothic toy on the lake owes 
its existence to a whim of the late Empress 
of Austria. 

But the sun is fast descending behind us — 
his last rays are lighting up the boundless 
prospect. Let me take advantage of them 
to point out to you the only remaining ob- 
ject of interest in the picture : on that gray 
conical hill, that, dimly looming on the verge 
of the horizon, might almost be mistaken 
for a cloud, stands the castle of Presburg ; 
at its foot lies the capital of Hungary, and 
past it hurries the broad Danube, widening, 
deepening, and strengthening, as it flows, 
wheeling to the south round the walls of 
Buda, washing those of Belgrade, and bear- 
ing the tributes of the Save, the Drave, the 
Teiss, and the Pruth, through the swamps 
of Bess-Arabia into the dark Euxine. At 
the moment I am speaking, the eyes of 

* " Blue-House," — this, however, is a corruption. The 
name of Blaue-Hausis derived, not from the ancient colour 
of its walls, as the vulgar suppose, but from the family of 
Plauenstein, its original possessors* 

X 



306 AUSTRIA. 

all Europe are bent in the same direction. 
The cannon has been fired that may shake 
the peace of the world. The flames that 
are kindling on the shores of the Black 
Sea may spread to the mouths of the 
Mississippi. But I have neither the talent 
nor the ambition to be a politician or a 
prophet; and so farewell, gentle reader: 
the bugles of the peaceful herdsmen, salut- 
ing some returning visiters of Baden, shall 
M sing truce 9 ' to our warlike speculations, for 

" The night cloud has lower' d, 
And sentinel stars set their watch in the sky." 

It is time to hurry down from the Temple 
of Glory, and return to the gay city. Go 
lounge upon the bustling and brilliant Gra- 
ben — gaze upon the pyrotechnics of the 
Prater, or laugh in the little theatre of Leo- 
poldstadt— -seek the Glacis, the Volksgar- 
ten, or the Opera. I leave you with this 
conviction, that if I have only been fortu- 
nate enough to induce you to descend the 
Danube to Vienna, there is little doubt of 
obtaining your pardon for any failure in 
my attempt to amuse you on your way. 



NAMES 

OF THE 

CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES, CASTLES, 
MONASTERIES, &c. 

ON THE 

BANKS OF THE DANUBE, 

FROM RATISBON TO VIENNA. 



RIGHT BANK. 




LEFT BANK. 


Regensburg or Ratisbon. 




Stadt-am-Hof. 






i 


Reinhausen. 






Weichs. 




St. Nicola. 




Schwabelweiss 




Einhausen or Biirgelut. 




Tegernheim. 




Irlmauth. 








Kreuzhof. 




Donaustauf. 


(Ruin.) 


Barbing. 




Reifelding. St. Salvator. 


Sarching. 




Sulzbach. 
Demling. 




Nassenhart. 




Bach. 




Friesheim. 




Frenghofen. 




Ilkhofen. 




Kruckenberg. 


Ettersdorf. 


Altach. Auburg. 




Kirfenholz 




Eltheim. 








Gaissling. 
Seppenhausen. 

1st Post Station from! "PfWto • 
Regensburg J ■Jriatier. 


1 


GiefFen. 

Oberachdorf. Wiesent, 

Worth. (Chateau.) 






Hungerdorf. 








Tiefenthal. 





X2 



308 



NAMES OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, 



RIGHT BANK. 

Griefau. Gmund. 

Herrfurt. 

Irling. 

Aholfinjr. 



(Ruin.) Ober and Unter 
Motzing 

Landersdorf. 

Breitenfield. 

Rinkheim. 



Einhausen. 



Eberau. 
Moosklagers. 



2 te P ;ensbuf nfr ° m }STRAUBlNG. 



Aiterhofen. Ittling. 
and Unter Eblina: 



Atzelburg. 



Hochstatter Hof. 
Ober 



Hundersdorf. Saut. 

Absam. 
Hermansdorf. 



Einbrach or Kinbrach. 
Mitterdorf. Hindeldorf. 



I 



I 



I 



LEFT BANK. 

Keesel. Hochdorf. 

Heiligen Blut or Niederach. 

Bogen or Hagenhof. 

Sinzendorf. 

Pondorf. 

Zeitsdorf or Zeitlarn. 

Weihern. 

Beichsee. Kirchenroth. 

Pittrich. Neidau. 

Kossnach. Pfaffenmiinster. 

Hartzeitdorn. 

Sossau. 

Sossauer Beschlacht. 

Hormannsdorf or Hornsdorf 

Thurmhof. 

Ober and Unter Parkstetten. 

Reibersdorf. 

Lenach. 

Ober-Altaich. (Kloster.) 

Boffen and the Bog-enbenr. 
(Ruin.) 

Huttenhof, 
Holzkirch. 



Hofweinzier. 



Anning. Dorfl. 
Pfellms:. 



Linzing. Esper. Weichen- 
bers:. 



ON THE BANKS OF THE DANUBE. 



309 



RIGHT BANK. 


LEFT BANK. 


Endau or Zengau. 


Allkofen. 


J 


Albertskirchen. 


Petzendorf. 


Strasskirchen. Irlbach. 


Wallendorf. 


Loche. 


Rafer or Asperhof, 


Wischelberg. 


Aichach. 


Stephan-Posching. 


Maria-Posching. 


Uttenkofen. 


Hundeldorf. 


Steinfurt. 


Sommersdorf. 


Steinkirchen. 


Klein -Schwarzach. 


Bergheim. 


Ziedeldorf. Offenberg. 




Neuhausen. 




Himmelberg. 
* Metten. (Kloster.) 


Metten Ufer. s 


(Ruin) Natternberg*. 


Helfkam. 


Fischerdorf. 


Schaching. 




Deggendorf* 


ost Station from (Plattlillg Oil 

gensburg | the Inn. 


Deggenau. 
Halbe-Meile-Kirche. 


Isragemiind. 


Seebach. 




Reit. 




Helmdorf. 




Unter Schwarzach. 




Hengersberg. (Ruin.) 


Thundorf. 


Nieder Altaich. (Kloster.) 




Alten Ufer. 


Aicha. 


Gindlau. 


H aardorf. Kreuzberg. 




SSge. Munchsdorf. 





310 



RIGHT BANK. 




LEFT BANK. 


Osterhofen. Mulheim. 




Winzer. Hochwinzer.(Ruin.) 


Rockessing. Pockessing. 


l 


Loh. Kinschbach, 


Rossfelden. 




Guscherdorf. 




Mittau. 


Endsau. 




Nesselbach. 


Biflez. 




Leiten. 


Kinzing. Langenkinzing. 
Herzogau. 




Hofkirchen. (Ruin.) 


Pleinting. 




OberandUnter Schollenbach 


Eurode. 
Reif. 




Gelbersdorf. 
Hildegardsberg. (Ruin.) 


Wisbauer. 
U. L. Frau. 




Albersdorf. 
Schmelz. 


4th Post Station from \ Vikhnten 
Regensburg, S Vlisnoien. 


l 


Wmkel. 


Witzling. 


Hacheldorf. 


Hannsbach. 




Windorf. 


Ottenham. 




Eglsee. 


Sandbach. 




Gerharding. 


Kotzing. 




Fisching. 


Leestatten. 




Deichselberg. 


Einod. 




Kling. 


Biberach. 




Geishofen. 


Schalding. 




Iring. 


Reit. Ord. Hof. 




Soldern. 




l 


Alaning. 




Donauhof. 


Dobelstein. Haining, 




Worth. 
Maierhof. 



ON THE BANKS OF THE DANUBE. 



311 



RIGHT BANK. 

Steinbach. 



5th Post Station from 
Regensburg 



} Passau. 

Truckerheim. 

Achleiten. 

Parz. 

Aich. 

Schildbauer. 



Unter-Mitter-E Sternberg. 

Deitzendorf. Hetzmanns- 
dorf. 

(Chateau.) Krempenstein. 

Pirawang. 

Unter Schacha. 

Ober Hiitt. Hochleiten. 

Kasten. 

(Chateau.) Fichtenstein. 



(i SS££j} Engelhardszell. 



Ober \ 
Unter | 



Leitner. 



Ober-Rana. 
Kacher. 

Wesen Urfar. 



1 



l 



crq 



I 



LEFT BANK. 

StOlzel-hof. 
Freunde. Hain. 
Ilz-stadt. Oberhaus. 



Lindau. 
Aiehet. 
Leiten. 
Wingertsdorf. 



Schergendorf. 



Mazenberg. 

{(Bavarian 
Custom- 



House.) 



Ober 
Unter 



Grunau. 



Gottsdorf. 

Ried. (Ruin.) 

Rana-Riedl. (Chateau.) 
Rana-bach and Mtihle. 
Ufer. 
Nieder Rana, 

Marsbach. (Ruin.) 
Marsbach Zell, or Frey Zell. 



312 



NAMES OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, &c. 



RIGHT BANK. 


LEFT BANK. 


? T b f Iwollmarkt. 
U nter J j 

(Ruin.) Waldkirchen. sj/ 






Pulhof. 






Kirschbaum, or Hayenbach. 
(Ruin.) 


rhe Sehlagen, or Schlag- 
leiten. 




Lidritzhueb. 


Lidritzhueb. 




Au. 


Im-Zell. 


Ob, 


Fadenau-Hof. 




si} schwend - 


Ober-Michel. Kirschberg. 


Hinter-Aigen. 


Dorf. 


\ 


Windberg. 


f Neuhaus. (Ruin and Cha- 
teau.) 


SchOnleiten. 




Rosengarten. 




Stauf. Aschach. 






Landshag. 


Hartkirchen. Dorsham. 

(Ruin.) Schaumberg. 
Pupping. 


Ober Walsee. Eschelberg. 
Mulhachen. Bergheim. 


Gstettenau. 


Hofham. 


Au. 


Auerdorf. 


Waschpoint. 




Worth. 

8th Post Station from { Efferding. 
Regensburg j Schab. 

Taubenbraun. Gablau. 


• Mohrhausel. 
\ 


Raffolding. Ihndorf. 


Busenbach. Bach. 



ON THE BANKS OF THE DANUBE. 



313 



RIGHT BANK. 

Tratteneck. 

Sirass. Emling. Aham. 

Stoekod. 

Basleiten. 

Hartheim. 

Alkofen. 

Garderiener. Hagenau. 

Bergham. 

Gohbesch, 

Steger. 

Schwagen. 

Schohering. 

Im-Fall. 

Urfar. 



(Kloster.) Willering. 



Calvarienberg. 
Margarethen. 



9th Post Station froml 
Regensburg. J 



LlNZ. 



j j > Rosenthal. 



I 



I 



I 



LEFT BANK, 



Goldwarth. 



Waldinger. 



Rodel. 



Hoflein, 



Ottensheim. ' (Chateau.) 



Buchenau. 
Hager Schloschen. 



Postlingberg. 

Urfar. 

Anhof. 

Pflaster. 

Harbarz. 

Bach, 

Furth. 

Magdalena. 

Dornach. 

Furtner. 

Katsbach. 



314 



NAMES OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, &c 



RIGHT BANK. 


LEFT BANK. 




Plosching. 


Kaufleuten. Binneshauser. 


Blankenreit. 


' Spital. 


Zitzelau. St. Peter. 


Dorfl. 


Ebelsberg 
on the 
Traun. 


Steyereck. (Ruin.) 




Pulgarn. 


Traundorf. 


Reichenbach. 


Bosch. 


Luftenberg. 


Unger Bichling. 


Hof-im-Schlag. 


*/r to . w .„( Fosterau. 

Monastery of bt. Flonaiv 

andMarkt. ( Fischau. 




Himberg. 


RafFerstetten. 


Auwinden. 


Asten. 1 

(Chateau.) Tilly's Burg. N 
Kronau. 


St. Georgen. 


' Gusen. Wirthshaus. Frank 
enberg. 


(Ruin.) Spielberg. 


Langenstein. 


10th Post Station from I Ens. 
Regensburg j 


Urfar. 


Ensdorf. St. Lorenz. Lorch. 


Mauthausen. Pragstein. 


Enghazen. 




Tabor. 




Windpassing. Biburg. 


Reissersdorf. 


Albing. 


Albing. 


Albern. 


Niedersebing. 


Stein. 


Au. Berg. Auhof. Mitter- 
berg. 


Wagram. 
St. Pantaleon. ▼ 


Hartschlossel. 


Naarn. 


Erla Kloster. 


Anhausel. Strass. M. Lab. 


! 


Arbinar. 






ON THE BANKS OF THE DANUBE. 



315 



RIGHT BANK. 



Breitfeld. 
Weinberg. 

Oberau. 



Engelberg. 

Engelthal. 

Mitterau. 

Lin. 

Unterau. 

Eck. 

Gersberg. 

Achleiten. 



th Post S tation from ) ~ , , 

Regensburg. JStrengberg. 



Haag. 
Staudins:. 



Hurling. 



Sindburg. Nie 
derwalsee. (Chateau.) 



Ober ) 
Unterj 



Sumerau. 
Leitzing. 
Im Briich. 



I 



l 



l 



LEFT BANK. 

Baumgarten. 

Stafling. 

Holzleiten. 



Starzing. 



Rupertshofen. Miinzbach. 
Windhag. Allerheiligen. 
St. Thomas. 



Langacker. Wagerhof. 

Gang. 

Weisching. 

Inzing. 

Hordorf. 

Hulting. 

Mitterkirchen. 

Menschdorf. 



Eizindorf. Froschau. 

Saxen. 

Dornach. 

Klam. (Chateau) 

Hofkirchen. 



316 



NAMES OF THE CITIES^ TOWNS, &c 



RIGHT BANK. 

Hagenauer, 
Bocksreiter. 



Ardagger. 



Winkling. 
Mayherhof. 

Wies. 



(Ruin.) Haustein. 

(Ruin.) Hirschau. 

(Ruin.) Freyenstein. 

Durfel. 



(Chateau.) Donaudorf. 

Ips. 
Hinterhaus. 
Ober ) . 

Sausenstein. 



Idersdorf. 



I 



1 



I 



LEFT BANK, 

Petzeldorf, 

Rinzenhof. 
Sauriisselleiten. 

Tiefenbach. 

Wies. 

Grein. (Chateau.) 

Giesenbach. 
Struden. (Ruin.) 
St. Nikola. 
Sarblingstein. 
Hirschau. 



Isper. 

Weins. 

Marhof. 

Kiernholz. 

Busenbeug. (Chateau) 



Taberg. 



Gottsdorf. 

Barthub. 

Motzling. 
Rohberg. 



Rosenbiihel. 
Loja. 



ON THE BANKS OF THE DANUBE. 



317 



RIGHT BANK. 




LEFT BANK. 

Thiimling. 
Auratsberg. 




1 


Kranz. 




Marbach. Maria-Taferl. 






Schelmenbach. 


Krumnussbaum. 




Krumnussbaum. 


Pechlarn. 




Klein Pechlarn. 


Worth. 




Ebersdorf. 

Lehen. 

Urfar. 

Weideneck. (Ruin.) 

St. Georgen. 


uth Post station J (Kloster) 

from Regenstmrg J Molk. 


I 


Hain. 

Emmersdorf. 


Hueb. 




Schall-Emersdorf. 

Gosam. 

Urfar. Grinzing. 


Schonbuhel. 






Sehonbuhelhof. 
Dorf Aggsbach 




Markt Aggsbach. Aggstein 
(Ruin.) 

Willendorf. 
Groisbach. 


St. Johann. 




Schwallenbach. 


Ober Arnsdorf. 






Hof Arnsdorf. 


I 


Erlahofe. 


Unter Arnsdorf. 


Spitz. Hinterhaus (Ruin.) 


Bach Arnsdorf. 




St. Michael 


n'terj Ktmlcck. 




Wesendorf. 



318 



NAMES OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, &c. 



RIGHT BANK. 

St. Lorenz. 

Ruhrsdorf. 
Rossaz. 

Hundheim. 
Mautern. 

Kloster-Guttweih. 

Palt. 

Brunnkirchen. 

Thalern. 

Angern. 

Wolfsberg. 



(Ruin.) Holenburg. 

Wagram. 

St. Georgen. 

Rittersfeld. 

Trasenmauer. 

Stollhofen. 

Frauendorf. 

Preiwitz. 



Bodensee. 



I 



1 



I 



LEFT BANK. 

Joching. 
Weissenkirchen. 



(Ruin.) 



Diirrenstein. 

Ober ) T .., 
Unter| Luben - 

Stein. 

Krems. 

Weinzierl. 
Lander sdorf. 
Ruhrendorf. 



Weidling. 
Neu-Weidling. 

Teiss. 

Schlickendorf. 
Donaudorf. Grunddorf. 



Jedtsdorf. 

Graf en worth. 

Wasen. 

St. Johann. 

Ober 1 

und VLebern. 
Unter J 

Sachsendorf. 

Kollersdorf. 



ON THE BANKS OF THE DANUBE: 



319 



RIGHT BANK. 

Kleindorf. 
Berndorf. 

Zwentendorf. 
Erpersdorf. 

Klein Schunbuhel 
Kronau. 
Asp em. 

Tuln. 



Ober und Unter Aigen, or 
Langenlebern. 

Muckendorf. 



Zeiselmauer. 

Worten. 

St. Andre. 

Altenberg. 

(Ruin.) Greifenstein. 

Hoflein. 

Ober Kritzendorf, 
St. Veit. 
Unter Kritzendorf. 
Kloster-Neuburg. 



I 



l 



Weidlim 



Josephsberg, Leopoldsberg, 



sephsberg, Leopolds berg, XT^.f^l 
both called the Khalenberg. J uvl rei » 



I 



LEFT BANK. 

Altenworth. 

Gugging. 

Winkel. 

Frauendorf. 

Birnbaum. 

Urzenlaa. 

Mollersdorf. 

Neuaigen. 

Triebensee. 

Perzendorf. 

Ober Schmidabach. 

Zana. 

Schmida. 

Ober) 

und >Zeyersdof. 

UnterJ 

Stockerau. 



Spillern. 

Alt-Kreutzerstein. 

Korneuburg. 

Bisamberg. 
Tuttenhof. Dorf. 
Lang-Enzersdorf. 
Jetelsee, 



320 



BANKS OF THE DANUBE 



RIGHT BANK. 

Nussdorf. 

Heiligen Stadt. 

Dobling. 

Wien, I 

or 

Vienna, J 



I 



LEFT BANK. 



Gedlersdorf am Spitz. 



19th Post Station, and 27 Posts from Regensburg, or 243 
English miles. Distance by water about 300 English miles. 



THE END. 



Printed by William Clowes, Stamford Street. 



Speedily will be published, in illustration of this Volume, 

FORTY VIEWS ON THE DANUBE, 

DRAWN ON STONE by L. HAGHE, 

FROM 

SKETCHES MADE ON THE SPOT BY J. R. PLANCHE. 



No. I. will contain : 

1. Ratisbon, from Hohen-Schambach. 

2. Donaustauf. 

3. Schloss Worth. 

4. Straubing, 






/' 



